Nutter Reacts To City Council Not Increasing Budget For School Funding
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Nutter and the head of the School Reform Commission say tough choices lie ahead, now that City Council has stood firm in keeping the amount of new money for the schools to less than half of what Nutter wanted.
On Thursday night, City Council held firm in giving $40 million in new funding to the school district (see related story). The Mayor had originally asked for $94 million and that higher amount is what the School Reform Commission included in its budget.
"The $40 million dollars is, of course, better than no additional dollars, but clearly falls short of what the district had hoped for, what we had hoped for," Nutter said.
SRC chairman Pedro Ramos says that $54 million dollar gap must be closed either through further cuts or additional borrowing.
"Every dollar below 94 that doesn't happen has to be made up elsewhere, presumably in further reductions."
But Ramos says he still holds out that either the city or state will come through with more.
