Residency

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Yesterday's local paper had this story about Senator Santorum's residency as it relates to charter school for his children. Although I snipped a bunch out of the quote below the major points (as I see it) are:

1. Santorum's children attend cyber school paid for by a local Pittsburgh school district where he owns a residence to the tune of $38,000 per year.
2. Said residence is a two bedroom home (he has six children and a wife).3. The Santorums use that address for voter registration as do two other people
4. In 2001, Santorum bought a ~$650,000 home in Viriginia
5. When Santorum ran for Congress (prior to Senate) he criticized the incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Walgren for buying a house and raising his three children in McLean, Va.

My opinions:
Item #5 leads me to believe that Santorum is a hypocrite.

I can't blame him for wanting to be involved in his children's lives by having them live where he works (DC). But does it not smack of irresponsibilty not to reside, even part time, with his constituency? This must be an issue with many of those in congress who have families. Where is the balance?

I do blame him for having a Pittsburgh school district pay for his children to attend a cyber school. Ridiculous.

Your thoughts.

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Who else is using that address?

The only nice thing I can say about Rick Santorum is that his office cranks out a very polite reply note very quickly.

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Interesting topic. I'd agree that, based on his prior criticism of Rep Walgren, he does sound like a hypocrite.

Since he's paying the school tax in Pen Hills, I can't get too worked up over the school district paying for the cyber charter school. Is the $7,500 figure an actual payment or what is is deemed "worth". Most residency compliance checks are interested in children living in other school districts and not paying taxes towards the district the children are attending. Although he did it right by purchasing a cheap house with I'm assuming lower school taxes.

My big issue is with his eligibility to be a senator representing Pa.

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UPDATE

Santorum says he will home-school children

JENNIFER C. YATES

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife will immediately begin home-schooling their five school-age children after they drew criticism from a school board member for sending them to an Internet-based school paid for by taxpayers.

A member of the Penn Hills school board said last week that the district has paid about $100,000 for the Santorums' children to attend the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. Erin Vecchio said Santorum has never lived in the district, despite owning a two-bedroom house there; the family of six lives in a home in Leesburg, Va., so the senator can be close to Washington, D.C.

In a statement issued late Wednesday and posted on the senator's Web site, Santorum said they would withdraw their children from the cyber charter school.

"The school district has just informed us that after reviewing our situation, only children who live in a community on a full time basis are eligible to be educated in a public cyber charter school program," Santorum said. "Karen and I believe it is important for our family to be with me when I am working in Washington; as I always say the most important job I have is as a husband and a father."

The Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus said the family will resume home-schooling the children. The change was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday.

Vecchio, who is also head of the local Democratic committee, said she was thrilled with the senator's decision, but still wants him to pay the district back.

"He's trying to say this is political. This is not political. This is a mother of three in a low-income school district," Vecchio said Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Santorum had said the senator and his wife divided their time between their Virginia home and the one in Penn Hills, which they bought in 1997.

Vecchio brought the residency issue up at a school board meeting last week; later, Rep. T.J. Rooney, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, called on Santorum to refund the money to the district.

In his statement, Santorum said he had the approval of the Penn Hills School District while the children attended the cyber school. Cyber school students access their assignments and teachers primarily through school Web sites using their own computers, which can be located anywhere.

The Santorums bought the small Penn Hills in 1997 for $87,800, and it was assessed for $106,000 last year, records show. The couple's home in Leesburg, Va., was assessed at $757,000 this year, tax records show.

Under Pennsylvania's 2002 cyber school law, the district in which a student lives must pay the cost of tuition for students enrolled in cyber charter schools. Virginia has no such provision.

The school superintendent in Penn Hills, Patricia Gennari, did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

Santorum lived in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon while working at a Pittsburgh law firm in the 1980s. In 1990, when he ran for Congress against incumbent Doug Walgren, he criticized the seven-term representative for living with his family in McLean, Va.

In 1994, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He sold his home in Mount Lebanon and moved to Virginia in 1995. His spokesman at the time told The Associated Press that Santorum planned to buy a smaller home to replace the one he was selling, but the Washington-area residence would be his primary one.

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Everytime I see the word "charter school" I see the word "scandal" in the same sentence. I thought that was just a Texas thing because I have never heard of the concept being as wide spread as it is here. However, it looks like PA. is getting their share of the charter school/scandal lesson. I mean, $100,000 to educate childern? Via a computer, no less, where you would would think no fixed overhead costs would drive down the price.

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$7500 seems a bit high to me. Texas average is around $3500 I believe. Could be a bit more, but certainly under $4500.

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The specific charter school that he had his children enrolled in was formed primarily because of the need for ANY school for a local school district, Midland. Midland school district did not have the funds to maintain a school - a very low income area. The adjacent school districts would envelope that district any longer (lots and lots of issues there one of which was race). Anyway... the poor district ended up bussing their children to OHIO for school. Amazing, huh?

Residency

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