NCoGS

An article titled "Elite Summer Program Facing Pa. Budget's Ax" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette features the possible closure of the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence as a result of a proposed state budget that omits the programs' funding. The article includes quotations from NCoGS Board of Director members Barry Luokkala and Doug Woods.

Officials with the Rendell administration say next year's proposed state budget, to be unveiled today in Harrisburg, does not include funding for the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence.

Another article titled "Governor's Schools Alumni Fighting Budget Cuts" on PennLive.com confirms the proposed cuts and features PA GSE alumni efforts to fight the budget cuts and save the schools.

Alumni of the Governor's Schools of Excellence are fighting back against Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal to cut the program several say changed their lives.

Nearly 2,000 of the 19,000 alumni have already joined a "Save the Govies" Facebook group which is encouraging people to write their legislators and contact news organizations.

An additional article in the Philadelphia Enquirer titled "Funding Dropped for Governor's Schools" features much of the same content as the article in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, including quotations from Luokkala and Woods.

"It's shocking and very shortsighted in an age when the United States is falling behind in the global marketplace," said Barry Luokkala, program director of the Governor's School for Sciences, held in July at Carnegie Mellon... Douglas Woods, program director of the school for arts, said students at Mercyhurst are trained not only as future performers and audience members, but also are shown the importance both of advocating for the arts and of being participatory citizens.

In response to this proposed budget, the National Conference of Governor's Schools has sent a letter and e-mail message to Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania urging him to preserve the programs. NCoGS members can access the text of the letter by logging into the NCoGS Web site and selecting Documents > NCoGS Correspondence.