WEST SUNBURY - A public referendum over school budgets and inequity in state funding for schools were among the hot topics discussed Friday at the annual spring meeting of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in Butler County.

The meeting was at Dassa McKinney Elementary School in the Moniteau School District.

The association is the legislative lobbying agency for public schools in Pennsylvania. Each spring, it collects information from school officials as to which issues they want to see addressed with legislators for the following year.

Representatives from four of the county's seven school districts attended: Moniteau, Karns City, Mars and Butler. Several legislators also attended or sent aides, including state Reps. Dick Stevenson, R-8th; Scott Hutchinson R-64th; and Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th. State Sens. Mary Jo White, R-21st; and Jane Orie, R-40th; sent aides.

Candidates for the 11th House District, Democrat Fred Vero and Republican Brian Ellis, were invited. Ellis did attend.

"One of them is going to be the new state representative for this district, so we thought it would be good to get their input now," said Bill Smith, a Moniteau School Board member and meeting organizer.

At the top of the school officials' agenda is proposed legislation that would force schools to seek approval from the public before being able to raise taxes. The approval would come in the form of a voter referendum.

Jennifer Hoffman, PSBA representative, said her organization does not support referendum legislation.

"For the most part, people don't support it because they realize it takes away local control from the schools," Hoffman said.

Stevenson said he is worried the referendum would end up attached to other legislation and either get approved or denied because of legislators' opinions on other items in the bill.

The Legislature has to approve any referendum that would show up on an election ballot.

Several educators said they do not like the referendum because it would take away local control from school boards and also because if the referendum was rejected in the spring primary, the timing would leave schools with little time to come up with a budget.

School districts are required to have a budget in place for the following year by June 30.

"If we fixed the time line, would you change your mind on referendum?" Metcalfe asked.

"A big hurdle would be to change the time line," said Karns City superintendent Larry Henry.

However, Henry said a referendum isn't necessary because voters can control what happens with a budget by electing members to the school board who support their views.

Moniteau superintendent Michael Panza agreed.

"If people are unhappy with the budget process, they should vote out the board members," he said.

Trixie Heck, a Moniteau School Board member, said she didn't support the referendum, but said if it happened, it would be an "eye-opening experience for the public to have to be involved with the budgeting process."

In addition to the referendum, the issues of equitable state funding, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test and the No Child Left Behind act also were discussed.

A heated discussion concerning accountability took place between legislators and educators.

Educators said they are tired of legislators trying to compare apples to oranges and of expecting the same performance from all school districts.

Henry and Panza both said they were tired of being held to standards that are neither fair nor practical for schools of their size in comparison with schools the size of Butler or Seneca Valley.

Educators also said they feel like all the responsibility for a child's success is being placed on their shoulders instead of allotting some of the responsibility to parents.

Metcalfe, who is on the state House education committee, said schools must stop making excuses and work to help improve education.

"The bulk of the responsibility should fall on the student and the parents," Metcalfe said. "But you still have to provide the quality education to them."

Other issues discussed included property tax relief legislation.

Stevenson said legislation is about to be introduced that proposes lowering the state sales tax to 4 percent from 6 percent, but apply it to more items than it currently covers.

The legislation would help reduce property taxes and eliminate many of the nuisance taxes such as per capita and earned income taxes.

Gov. Ed Rendell's gambling initiative also was discussed, but several legislators said they had problems with the concept.

"The problem with the gambling initiative is that it does not raise enough money to replace property tax earnings," Stevenson said.

While some of the ideas being proposed to reduce property taxes are well-meaning, Stevenson said some are just not practical.

"Unless we do something to radically change the system, these same issues are going to continue to be around," Stevenson said.