July 13, 2014

By Jacob Kornbluh

The passage of an important public safety bill and significant funding approved in this year’s budget will ultimately benefit around 20 Jewish day schools in the Keystone State. Pennsylvania’s Safe School Legislation is the first in the nation to allow state funding to be used for personnel.

Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett approved the School Safety Legislation Amendment, which potentially provides millions of dollars for Jewish day school security funding, and signing the Pennsylvania budget, which preserves the funding levels for the EITC and OSTC programs, key funding programs for around 2,500 kids in Jewish day schools.

The original Safe School Legislation, passed last summer, prevented Jewish day schools and other non-public schools from participating in a grant program for school resource officers. But after a long lobbying effort by the OU Advocacy group, working with Pennsylvania state legislators, an amendment to the Safe School Legislation was passed, significantly improving non-public schools’ access to school resource officers and potentially provide millions of dollars for Jewish day school security funding.

To read the rest of this article in JP Updates, click here.