Sen. Stefano should talk about true transparency
In your May 23 edition, you printed a guest column authored state Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Townshp, titled “Transparency needed in teachers contracts.”
In my opinion, Mr. Stefano would serve the public much better if he would introduce Senate bills showing light on political interactions in Harrisburg. After doing so, he could publish an article titled “Transparency in political transactions.”
To me, history shows there is much more graft, theft and financial misdeeds in state political dealings than there are in the public schools.
Mr. Stefano boasts of two bills, SB 168 and SB 592. The goal of these two bills is to induce transparency into public education by divulging intricate details of negotiations and contracts which would include salaries. Perhaps this would be a virtue. However, Mr. Stefano overlooks the fact that the most bloated and expensive legislature in the country is the fatted cow; the Pennsylvania legislature.
By contrast – California, population 38.5 million, has 120 legislators – 40 senators and 80 house members. Pennsylvania, population 12.5 million, has a whopping 253 members – 50 senators and 203 house members. Can you imagine the total costs for this enormous political body and have you ever heard when Mr. Stefano ever publicly announced the true total, nod I mean true total, tremendous costs of this archaic political body?
Furthermore, it should be noted that nationally, state legislators contribute about 45 percent of funds to local school budgets. In Pennsylvania, our legislators contribute about 35 percent to local school budgets. This amount is a significant difference and places unneeded pressures on local school boards and local taxpayers.
During the recent stalemate on passing a budget, another blatant sign of the ineffectiveness of our state politicians, the first 100 days of this gridlock was very expensive to the taxpayers. Our state politicians charged $243,000 for hotels and meals at this time because they could not get the job done on time. For transparency, Mr. Stefano, did you receive any of that money?
In closing, here are a few tidbits that I believe connects to this letter:
1) for 2016-2017, average tuition at a private university was $33,480;
2) for 2016-2017, average tuition for an in-state student at a state university was $9,650;
3) For 2016-2017, average tuition for an out-of-state student at a public university was $24,930.
I mention these because teaching positions require at least a four-year degree. And by the way, the average tenure for a public school superintendent is 3.2 years.
Alex Bezjak is a resident of Uniontown