Education

By Josh Maxwell

1. Improve our Public Schools
2. Provide property tax relief
3. Make college more affordable

Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania we rely on property taxes to fund school budgets. The state of Pennsylvania cut the education budget to the bone in 2011, and now provides only about 38% of school budgets. We need to get this number back up to at least 50% by placing a severance tax on natural gas extraction. We need to make the hard choices necessary to ensure that our property taxes do not continue to rise while risking ruining our children's education.

Josh Maxwell has personal experience with the high cost of higher education. That's why he supports greatly expanding merit and need-based scholarships in Pennsylvania. A good student should always have a chance at a higher education without being saddled under a mountain of debt. We also need to streamline the process of transferring from community colleges to state universities. We need to have these institutions work together to ensure credits are transferable so students can complete their degrees efficiently. Lastly, when students graduate they need to be able to effectively find jobs. Josh Maxwell strongly supports expanding career counseling in High Schools, Community Colleges, and four-year Colleges and Universities.

What Josh Maxwell has done already:

Since becoming Mayor almost 4 years ago, Josh has been a constant advocate for our Schools. He helped Downingtown school district make innovative improvements as a board member of the Community Education Foundation, a non-profit which raises private funds for innovative education projects. With an emphasis on technology and modernization, the Downingtown schools, with assistance through our foundation, now provide iPads in elementary school classrooms, and is starting an after school-enrichment program for 3rd-5th graders.