| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
14 Nov 2004 10:50:04 AM |
| Object: |
Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04319/411623.stm
Penn Hills studying Santorum residency issue
Residency question fans debate on cost of cyber-educating senator's 5
children
Sunday, November 14, 2004
By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Penn Hills School District, which is paying about $38,000 a year
for five of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children to attend a cyber
charter school, is looking into whether the Republican senator resides
in the district.
School board member Erin Vecchio, who is chair of the Democratic party
in Penn Hills and lives near a two-bedroom house owned by the
Santorums, said, "I live right down the street from the man. He's
never there. ... He doesn't live here."
She thinks the district shouldn't have to pay for the Santorum
children to attend the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.
It is based in Midland but serves more than 3,100 pupils from nearly
400 school districts statewide who attend via computer.
Under state law, the district in which the pupil resides must pay for
each resident who attends a charter school.
While the fee varies by district, Penn Hills must pay $7,551 for each
pupil.
Neither parents nor a school district outside the state can pay
charter school tuition in Pennsylvania.
Penn Hills Superintendent Patricia Gennari said the school board had
asked the administration to investigate Santorum's residency.
Santorum's communications director, Robert Traynham, issued a
statement Friday pledging cooperation, but it did not clarify his
residency status.
"Sen. Santorum looks forward to working with the Penn Hills School
District and the municipality of Penn Hills to make sure that he is in
compliance with all residency requirements," Traynham's statement
said.
Santorum's press secretary, Christine Shott, who issued the statement,
declined to elaborate on it.
The case mixes politics, money, education and technology.
With cyber schools, pupils can attend by logging on to their
school-provided computers no matter where they are.
There are 11 cyber charter schools statewide.
When the Santorums bought a two-bedroom house on Stephens Lane in Penn
Hills in 1997, they already owned a house in Virginia, and cyber
schools didn't exist.
The Santorums, who have six children, home-schooled their children and
did not send their children to the regular Penn Hills public schools.
But they and some other home-school families chose cyber charter
schools, which offer flexibility both in place and in curriculum.
In Penn Hills, the number of pupils who are home-schooled has fallen
from 87 in 2001-02 to 39 this year while the number of cyber charter
school pupils has grown from 30 to 66.
It's not unusual for school districts to check out whether pupils
really are residents, but some of the tried-and-true techniques, such
as staking out a house to see whether the pupil leaves for school,
won't work with a cyber school.
James Chavis, home and school visitor and coordinator of pupil
services in Penn Hills, told the board last week that he did 136
residency checks last school year, resulting in 44 pupils being
removed from the district because they weren't residents.
The Santorums use the Penn Hills address for voter registration as do
two other people, Bart and Alyssa DeLuca, both 25, according to
Allegheny County records.
When a reporter went to the house on Stephens Lane on Friday, a young
man who came to the door declined to comment.
But what does it mean to be a resident?
Sean Fields, associate counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association, did not comment on this particular case, but he said
there were "very few" court cases addressing the residency question.
State law says, "A child shall be considered a resident of the school
district in which his parents or the guardian or his person resides."
Just having two homes doesn't in itself mean the person isn't a
resident, Fields said.
He noted a 2000 case in the Cumberland Valley School District in which
the regular family home was outside of the school district but the
mother and her two children spent five days a week at a townhouse in
Cumberland Valley.
The court ruled the mother and the children were residents of the
school district, even though their primary home was elsewhere.
In the case, the court noted:
"She and the children actually live there. They stay there during the
days and sleep there at night. Mail and phone calls are received
there. Clothing, books and supplies are kept there as well."
The court said that was the "classic definition of 'residence.' "
A U.S. senator must be an "inhabitant" of the state that elects him or
her.
Brian McDonald, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State,
was not aware of any formal definition of that term.
When Santorum ran for Congress, he lived in Mt. Lebanon and criticized
then U.S. Rep. Doug Walgren for buying a house and raising his three
children in McLean, Va.
For two terms in the House, Santorum commuted back to Mt. Lebanon.
But after he became a senator, he sold his house in Mt. Lebanon and
bought a home in Herndon, Va., for $292,184, in 1995.
In 1997, he and his wife bought the Penn Hills house for $87,800, now
with a market value of $106,000 but, with a homestead exclusion, taxed
at $91,000.
In 2001, they sold the Herndon house for $429,900 and bought a house
in Leesburg, Va., for $643,361, according to Fairfax and Loudoun
County records.
That house now is assessed at a market value of $757,000.
One other issue has arisen in the controversy.
Bob Hunter, Penn Hills director of code enforcement, said the Santorum
house lacks a required occupancy permit, which calls for a municipal
inspection for any code violations and a dye test of the sewer system.
Hunter has sent a letter asking them to seek an occupancy permit.
.
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| User: "Ike" |
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| Title: Re: Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
14 Nov 2004 12:33:29 PM |
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"Fredric L. Rice" <occr42@skeptictank.orgREMOVE> wrote in message
news:10pf32b333qne8a@corp.supernews.com...
From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04319/411623.stm
Penn Hills studying Santorum residency issue
I read the whole article looking to any reference that would tell me who the
"Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news" is.
--
Freedom of thought entails no "Intellectual Property".
.
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| User: "towelie" |
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| Title: Re: Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
14 Nov 2004 04:58:44 PM |
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TV's Ike wrote:
"Fredric L. Rice" <occr42@skeptictank.orgREMOVE> wrote in message
news:10pf32b333qne8a@corp.supernews.com...
From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04319/411623.stm
Penn Hills studying Santorum residency issue
I read the whole article looking to any reference that would tell me
who the "Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news" is.
Santorum.
--
"Them white boys had me on crystal meth" - some crackhead in GTA:SA
aa #2133
ap #19
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| User: "Ike" |
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| Title: Re: Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
14 Nov 2004 06:17:09 PM |
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"towelie" <bugoNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2vq690F2ovibrU1@uni-berlin.de...
TV's Ike wrote:
"Fredric L. Rice" <occr42@skeptictank.orgREMOVE> wrote in message
news:10pf32b333qne8a@corp.supernews.com...
From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04319/411623.stm
Penn Hills studying Santorum residency issue
I read the whole article looking to any reference that would tell me
who the "Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news" is.
Santorum.
May be Santorum but he article didn't say so. That's why I killfiled the
ignorant S.O.B. His subject lines don't match anything in the articles he
posts.
--
Freedom of thought entails no "Intellectual Property".
.
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| User: "towelie" |
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| Title: Re: Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
15 Nov 2004 12:05:18 AM |
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TV's Ike wrote:
"towelie" <bugoNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2vq690F2ovibrU1@uni-berlin.de...
TV's Ike wrote:
I read the whole article looking to any reference that would tell me
who the "Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news" is.
Santorum.
May be Santorum but he article didn't say so. That's why I killfiled
the ignorant S.O.B. His subject lines don't match anything in the
articles he posts.
Did you read the right article? The first paragraph:
"The Penn Hills School District, which is paying about $38,000 a year for
five of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children to attend a cyber charter school,
is looking into whether the Republican senator resides in the district."
Personally, I like the fact that Fredric posts articles like this one.
--
"Them white boys had me on crystal meth" - some crackhead in GTA:SA
aa #2133
ap #19
.
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| User: "Ike" |
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| Title: Re: Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news |
15 Nov 2004 02:50:41 PM |
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"towelie" <bugoNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2vqv8oF2mc0iqU1@uni-berlin.de...
TV's Ike wrote:
"towelie" <bugoNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2vq690F2ovibrU1@uni-berlin.de...
TV's Ike wrote:
I read the whole article looking to any reference that would tell me
who the "Bizarre "Famly Values" Christian kook in the news" is.
Santorum.
May be Santorum but he article didn't say so. That's why I killfiled
the ignorant S.O.B. His subject lines don't match anything in the
articles he posts.
Did you read the right article? The first paragraph:
"The Penn Hills School District, which is paying about $38,000 a year for
five of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children to attend a cyber charter
school,
is looking into whether the Republican senator resides in the district."
Personally, I like the fact that Fredric posts articles like this one.
Yeah but the point is, the article doesn't specifically name any bizarre
family values kook. At least FLR is in good company. I have also killfiled
maff and stoney.
--
Freedom of thought entails no "Intellectual Property".
.
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