Public Citizens for Children and Youth sent out a press release on behalf of several organizations, including the Law Center, in response to Governor Corbett’s call for the legislature to return to vote on the legislation authorizing the Philadelphia cigarette tax increase for schools.
Law Center staff attorney Michael Churchill was quoted in the press release saying, “Although the Governor’s steps finally to help keep Philadelphia schools open are welcome, ‘This is a terrible way to run a railroad’. Philadelphia’s students, parents, teachers and administrators deserve well funded schools which are not put through a weekly crisis on whether they have the bare minimum necessary. Legislators should be ashamed to go on vacation before they finish their work to keep schools open. Even with the cigarette tax, Philadelphia students will have $2,500 less per student than the average student in neighboring districts, and schools without basics like counselors, nurses and adequate textbooks. It is time the state legislature and governor end this blatant unfairness.”
A group from the Law Center joined PCCY and others this morning in Philadelphia to protest legislative inaction on voting to authorize a Philadelphia cigarette tax increase that would raise $80 million annually for the city’s schools.
