In one of the few bright spots in a grim national election, Democratic nominee York businessman Tom Wolf won a decisive victory over incumbent Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. The election was essentially a referendum on Corbett's program of education austerity and privatization while lavishing tax breaks on corporations.
Corbett's record
In 2010 Corbett, previously a popular state attorney general, won election in a landslide. With a legislative GOP majority in his first year he cut the basic education subsidy by over a billion dollars, announced an ambitious program of tax cuts and subsidies for big business and a half a billion dollar prison construction program.
Corbett not only reduced funding: he also scrapped a costing out formula adopted during the previous Rendell administration that apportioned state dollars based on objective factors such as poverty, numbers of English language learners and capacity to raise revenue. Instead, the Republican legislature doled out money to partisan supporters and wealthy districts at the expense of poor districts, particularly districts with large communities of color.
Tom Corbett was also an aggressive supporter of charter schools and a voucher like program that provided generous tax breaks for corporations that created private scholarships.
In successive years he fought off efforts by a progressive coalition of unions, education advocates and community organizations that pressed the state to raise revenue to restore the cuts. With rural and suburban communities as well as urban areas forced to raise property taxes and lay off staff to meet budget shortfalls, Corbett responded by seeking to place blame for the state of PA schools on the Obama administration for eliminating federal stimulus money and on Democrats for failing to support privatizing state liquor stores and his version of pension reform. But it didn't work. As G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., director of the Franklin & Marshall College poll noted, "He never recovered from his first year."
Labor-Community Coalition Comes Together
A strong fight back movement at both ends of the state, almost from the beginning of Corbett's term, had much to do with that. In Philadelphia the state controlled School Reform Commission proposed a five year budget plan which included deep cuts to instruction, closing over sixty neighborhood schools, growing the charter school sector to 40% of enrollment, and rolling back union wages, benefits and collective bargaining rights. This galvanized public education supporters. The Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools, (PCAPS) was formed, bringing together the school district's unions with parent, student, and community organizations. A sister labor-community coalition, Great Pittsburgh Schools (GPS) developed in the western part of the state.
Both organizations campaigned tirelessly to bring to the broader public's attention the impact of the education cuts and the class and racial bias of Corbett's policies.
In Philadelphia, virtually every time Corbett came to town he was greeted with vocal protest. Sometimes this was just a small picket line and a bull horn. At other times thousands of people showed up as when he was forced to cancel his visit to Central High School in January of 2014 or when this past June he joined Chris Christy for a fundraiser at the Comcast Center.
During this period there were campaigns including demands for more local funding, a fair contract for teachers and a level playing field for charters, but all these efforts sought to underline the role of the governor and his cuts.
The mobilization of students, parents and the communities most impacted by the budget cuts was a consistent focus. The harshest impact of the school closings and budget cuts came in African-American and Latino neighborhoods of North Philadelphia and it was these communities, along with union members, who made up the emerging base for PCAPS, which has twenty member organizations. The most active community based organizations were ACTION United and Fight for Philly. Two city wide student organizations, Youth United for Change and the Philadelphia Student Union, also played leading roles on the community side.
Labor played a major role in the coalition, a reflection of a growing understanding in the labor movement that alliances with the community are a strategic necessity in this period. For the PFT, which historically has had a strained relationship with the African American community, the willingness to commit to a coalition in which community allies are seated at the table as equals, marks an important step forward. SEIU, which represents maintenance workers, was a strong advocate within the coalition for linking the education fight with the broad struggle for economic justice. UNITE HERE staged a fast to combat the attacks on its lowest paid members, and took up the question of defending public education with its whole membership in the hospitality industry. The Central Labor Council was also part of PCAPS and played a supportive role.
The developing opposition to Corbett had to deal with internal differences and disagreements. PCAPS argued for funding education by taxing the lucrative extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus shale region and closing corporate tax loopholes, not by levying more regressive taxes on working people. On the other hand, corporate Democrats like Mayor Michael Nutter and other education advocates made lobbying for a cigarette tax on Philadelphians their priority.
Another point of difference with some education advocates and some Democratic politicians was that PCAPS argued that fair contracts for school workers were a necessary element of improving public education. PCAPS explicitly opposed the attacks on collective bargaining by the SRC which has used powers it claims under the state takeover law (passed in 2001) to roll back seniority and impose big increases in the costs of health benefits.
Literally hundreds of rallies and picket lines were held at schools over the last year exposing the phony shared sacrifice program of Corbett and the SRC which called for a bare bones instructional program paid for by labor concessions and regressive taxes on working people. Public opinion in the city has swung towards school employees and against the SRC.
In the fall of 2013 PCAPS developed an education platform as the basis for its intervention in the governor's race. It based the platform on the struggles people were waging on the ground and advanced five points:
1) An equitable funding formula that took into account poverty, special needs and a district's ability to pay.
2) Increased the revenue for education paid for by taxing shale gas, closing corporate loopholes, and accepting federal Medicaid dollars.
3) Charter school accountability: make charters transparent, accountable and revise how they are funded to create equity.
4) Stopping the school to prison pipe line: replace punitive discipline polices with restorative justice, both in schools and the criminal justice system.
5) Restore Local Control - Abolish the School Reform Commission.
The Election Campaign
In November that platform was put to the gubernatorial candidates in a forum organized by the Working Families Party, then just emerging in the state. Holding this forum early in the election season proved to be a smart decision. Most of the candidates in the crowded Democratic primary field attended and because their positions on the issues had not yet hardened, they were more receptive. A boisterous crowd of over a thousand people, very much "on message", had an influence. All the participants, Tom Wolf among them, with varying degrees of specificity, committed to these five points. Special mention should be made here of the role of John Hanger, the most progressive of the Democrats, who organized an education bus tour of the state and gave the strongest endorsement of the PCAPS platform. Our role from this point on was to remind them of these commitments and demonstrate there was a strong base of support for these demands from the electorate.
Two related campaigns served to do that. The Working Families Party launched a petition drive to put the question of Local Control on the ballot in the general election. The Philadelphia City Charter requires that 25,000 registered voters sign such a petition which then goes to City Council. 40,000 signatures were gathered over the winter. PCAPS, which has some overlapping membership in WFP, contributed to this drive with PFT members canvassing parents at neighborhood schools. City Council stalled putting the measure on the November ballot, but it will be on the ballot next May in the primary and is emerging as an issue in the upcoming Mayoralty and Council races.
PCAPS also launched an Education Voter Pledge Drive in March which centered on getting registered voters to sign a pledge card with the five platform points on it. The pledge included a postcard that was mailed back to signers right before the election reminding them to vote for candidates who supported the five points. Over the spring and summer PCAPS mobilized volunteers who knocked on thousands of doors getting voters to sign these pledges. A GOTV operation included phone calls as well as the post cards to those who pledged.
Because PCAPS includes member organizations that legally can't engage in partisan political activity, the group did not endorse a candidate in the Governor's race. However a report card on the candidates was circulated rating both Wolf and Corbett based on the five point platform with Wolf passing and Corbett predictably failing in each category. The unions and some of the community organizations actively participated in the Wolf campaign.
Wolf had the good sense to understand that education was the central issue in the campaign and his media campaign reflected that. He promised to up the state's share of education spending from 35%, near the bottom when compared with other states, to 50% and to pay for it by taxing the shale gas frackers, closing down corporate loopholes and increasing the state income tax on upper income residents. He also spoke out in favor of abolishing the SRC and for an elected school board in Philadelphia and admonished the SRC for imposing contract terms on the PFT. In his hometown of York he opposed a proposal supported by some of his political associates to turn the whole school district over to charter schools.
The candidate came in for some criticism for failing to take up the issues around racial profiling and mass incarceration and not campaigning much in Philadelphia. He did support legalization of marijuana.
Election Results
The good news on election day was that Wolf beat Corbett by a solid margin, close to 400,000 votes or almost 10%, winning almost every demographic and almost every part of the state. Wolf achieved this result running as a progressive and without running scared from President Obama. In fact, Obama came to Philadelphia for a big Wolf campaign rally two days before the election. Trade unionists, students and their allies gained valuable experience in this campaign that should prove helpful going forward. Central Pennsylvania, a traditional Republican bastion was the only region Corbett carried. He did win the Republican vote, but, unfortunately for him, many Republicans stayed home.
However the good news is tempered by several factors. First, Wolf had no coattails. The Republicans scored gains in both chambers in Harrisburg and dominate both with huge majorities. This reflects both the impact of gerry mandering and the weakness of the Democratic Party state wide, including the absence of a progressive presence in much of the state. Some might argue that Wolf won this election not because the Democratic Party turned out, but because Republican moderates went for Wolf while Tea Party conservatives, angered over the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and Corbett's support for raising the gasoline tax to pay for a transportation bill, stayed home.
Corbett lost the Philadelphia suburbs, where he was competitive in 2010, by almost 20 points. In Central Pennsylvania he racked up big margins but turnout was way down.
Philadelphia illustrates the challenge for the Democrats. Wolf shellacked Corbett with 88% of the vote but turnout was actually less then in 2010 when a close Senate race bolstered off year turn out. Again, indications are that the big vote for Wolf owes as much to GOP voters staying home as to effective mobilization of the Democratic base.
This places the efforts to develop a progressive education voter base in context. While anecdotally it is clear that voters responded positively to the message about investing in education, going after the one percent and creating more democratic governance, this organizing wasn't on a scale to dramatically boost turnout of the Democratic base.
The two and half year campaign against Corbett clearly did effectively brand him as an enemy of public education who catered to big business and that helped seal his fate. It also shows that a progressive message on these issues can appeal to the center.
Thanks to Corbett and his Republican allies, Wolf will face a huge deficit and a hostile legislature. Progressives will need to continue to mobilize if he is to make good on his campaign promises, both to press him and to demonstrate popular support for these policies. A broad coalition has come together around the demand for a fair funding formula, but because of the strong role of the Chamber of Commerce and corporate education reform forces in this grouping, it is not clear that this will include a push for more robust revenue. PCAPS, GPS, and others are working together to build a state wide network around a broad progressive education agenda, but this organizing is in its early stages and will require more capacity if it is to make a difference. These groups are part of the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS), a national coalition that brings together labor and community based education organizing.
The Wolf election, the election of Bill de Blasio last year in New York City, and the emergence of a diverse education justice movement in opposition to the bi-partisan, corporate education reform program, show that education is an issue that progressives must and can develop as part of a larger agenda for defeating the Right and moving our country forward.
Ron Whitehorne is a retired Philadelphia teacher and an activist on education issues.
Photo: Members of Youth United for Change occupy a center city street protesting education cuts during a visit by Governor Tom Corbett to Philadelphia last June. Ben Sears/Political Affairs
