·  Gov. Tom Corbett is not the real culprit in the schools funding crisis, although his refusal to acknowledge the problem adds to the frustration. Even the current legislators are not wholly to blame, even though they hold the power to fix it.

·  The inequity in Pennsylvania public schools funding is rooted in a flawed system of taxation that predates anyone now in office. The need for property tax reform has been bandied about in Harrisburg for decades, but no governor or Legislature in our lifetime has touched it.

·  Former Gov. Ed Rendell came up with what amounts to a rebate scheme to use gambling proceeds as a tax break for property owners. The “relief” for property owners in financially strapped districts amounts to a few hundred dollars on $5,000 property tax bills. And it does nothing to address school funding gaps.

·  The issue was also partly addressed with a costing-out study and use of a formula that gave more to schools in tax-stressed areas. The attempt was for the state to make up some of the gaps between richer and poorer so that all students in Pennsylvania have an equal investment in education. That formula has since gone by the wayside under Corbett and the Republican-led General Assembly.

·  Granted, there are many citizens and constituents of state elected officials who see no issue with the property tax. They live in areas where schools are well-funded; property values are high; industry and commercial enterprises pay a good share of the tax revenue, and family home tax rates are not out of step with family income. But in places like Pottstown and Upper or Lower Pottsgrove, schools depend for revenue on the property tax on middle- or fixed-income families who struggle to shoulder that burden.

·  Local school spending is not the issue. It never has been. The problem which has gone unaddressed for decades is reliance on an antiquated property tax system that fails miserably in providing fair funding for public schools.

·  While Corbett is not to blame for this historic boondoggle, he does have responsibility for making matters worse with a budget plan that rewards the inequities. He claimed level funding and even an increase for schools in his recent budget address, but an analysis of his plan shows that five area districts — Pottstown, Pottsgrove, Boyertown, Daniel Boone and Upper Perkiomen — will receive less than the year before.

·  Receiving an increase under the funding proposal are Spring-Ford, Owen J. Roberts, Phoenixville and Perkiomen Valley.

·  The largest loss by a local school distric, $101,000, would be experienced by Pottstown, a school district which arguably has the weakest local tax base of any area district.

·  Granted, the numbers are not significant in school budgets of millions of dollars, but the heart of the issue is that “taxpayers in communities with a limited tax base pay significantly higher per capita real estate taxes than those in more affluent communities,” said Pottstown Schools Superintendent Reed Lindley.

·  The problem is bigger than Corbett’s lackluster budget plan and has endured longer than either political party’s terms of leadership in Harrisburg. The property tax is part of a failed system of funding public schools that perpetrates inequities in education, which is our future, and only the governor and Legislature have the power to fix it.

·  Sadly, Pennsylvania’s leadership remains stuck in the past.