One day in early December, Ephrata High School math teacher Kris Miller took a rather peculiar approach in class.
He had his students read an article from a recent edition of Scholastic News. âCould You Clone Your Pet?â the headline read.
Miller then went around the room and asked students to share their petsâ names and decide whether theyâd consider cloning them. After all, who doesnât want their pet to live forever?
âCharice? No,â Miller said, uncharacteristically fumbling on the studentâs name.
âCharis,â the student said, correcting him.
âCharis. Darn it,â Miller said.
âI used to have, um, three cats, but now I only have two because one of them died,â Charis said.
When East Lampeter Township Supervisor Ethan Demme talks about helping the struggling business owners on Lincoln Highway East, he’s talking about people such as hotelier Bhavesh Patel.
THE ISSUE
âGov. Tom Wolf asked lawmakers Wednesday to raise income taxes on higher earners and give public schools a massive boost in aid, as state government faces a gaping deficit and uncertainty over how much more pandemic relief the federal government will send,â The Associated Press reported, describing the seventh-year Democratic governorâs proposed budget. âNo matter how great a parent you are, if your local school system lacks the resources it needs to provide your kids with a quality education, thatâs a barrier to giving them a better life,â Wolf said in his budget address of the urgency for increasing and fairly distributing public education funding.
Facing intense budgetary pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and years of being severely underfunded, a handful of Lancaster County schools received a semblance of hope Wednesday as Gov. Tom Wolf proposed what some school officials say is a long-overdue shakeup of education funding in Pennsylvania.
The democratic governorâs 2021-22 budget proposal, which some Republicans say is dead on arrival, builds on previous education funding increases by calling for a historic, $1.35 billion, or 21.6%, increase in basic education funding. Wolf is also asking for all basic education funding to flow through the stateâs Fair Funding Formula that presently is used for new money only. That translates to a $59.5 million, or 32%, boost for Lancaster County schools.