On that lost highway -- the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Headed east on the Turnpike, I'm hearning plenty about the devastation to public education now taking place under the banner of "reform".  Massive cuts to the education budget, firings of teachers and increased class sizes are expected to reverse many, if not all gains schools may have made in the past few decades.

A survey of Pennsylvania school districts released Thursday suggests teacher layoffs, instructional program cuts and tax increases beyond inflation are increasingly likely if Gov. Tom Corbett's cut of more than $1 billion in education subsidies stands. For example, 17 percent of the responding districts increased class sizes this year, but 86 percent expected to do so next year. -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"The impacts of the budget cuts are severe and will deeply affect the opportunity for students to learn across the state," Jim Buckheit, executive director of the school administrators association, said in a conference call with reporters. "It's the wrong answer for Pennsylvania's children today and the wrong answer for Pennsylvania's future."