As we write this, about two weeks have passed since the Republican majority in the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a budget bill, which Gov. Tom Wolf quickly vetoed.

Since then, Pennsylvanians have heard a lot of rhetoric about the supposed quality of the spending plan or the righteousness of the veto, but we want to address some inescapable facts not up for debate.

The Allentown School District has suffered the last four years due to a serious divestment in education. The school district has been forced to lay off more than 400 quality teachers and support staff, which has caused class sizes to balloon and test scores to drop.

And, as this is happening, property taxes have increased by a whopping 20 percent to make up for this shortfall in state funds.

A recent Morning Call article noted the school district has one elementary school librarian, which is simply unacceptable for a district with more than 8,000 elementary students.

How can our community schools promote literacy with one, solitary school librarian for 8,000 students?

Students across Allentown are also deprived of regular art, music and physical education classes at a time when we have to understand the importance of physical activity and creativity in promoting meaningful learning.

Key to world-class education is a foundation for students entering kindergarten.

Unfortunately, Allentown students have limited access to full-day kindergarten and high-quality early childhood programs such as pre-kindergarten.

Sadly, in addition to limiting student opportunity for success, this will ultimately cost taxpayers in the long run as society is forced to bear the costs of high unemployment, welfare, crime, recidivism and low job creation.

It is time for Pennsylvania to bolster its investment in education to send a message to our students we care about their well-being and their future matters to our community.

The budget Gov. Wolf proposed would have offered Allentown School District a nearly $10 million increase in education funds – enough to allow the district to start reversing the damaging cuts made by the previous administration, and to fully fund art, music and gym in our elementary schools.

The governor's plan would also have offered Allentown homeowners a massive $1,700 cut in their property taxes.

Unfortunately, the budget passed by the Republican legislature offered no property-tax relief.

There are many things up for debate this budget season, the need to properly fund our schools and tackle the property tax issue gripping the state are not.

Republicans tried to pass a budget that clearly doesn't move our state forward, yet seemed surprised and upset that Democrats, Gov. Wolf and the people of this commonwealth weren't fooled by the same tricks they tried for the last four years.

It's time for Republicans to come together with Democrats and Gov. Wolf at the negotiating table.

It's time to move Pennsylvania in a new and better direction.

***

Editor's note: State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-132nd, and state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-22nd, both cover portions of the city of Allentown.