Two local lawmakers are asking if a “school closing checklist” is really what Gov. Tom Wolf’s staff should be focusing on in this eighth month of the state budget impasse.

On Friday, Rep. Matt Gabler, R-DuBois, and Rep. Marty Causer, R-Turtlepoint, expressed outrage that Wolf’s administration has sent administrators of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts a checklist detailing the process by which a district should close due to insufficient funding.

The checklist was disseminated by the Department of Education and follows the governor’s Dec. 29 line-item vetoes, which included over $3 billion in cuts to public schools.

In response to the announcement of the “how to” list, Gabler said, “Disagreements in Harrisburg should never interrupt the education of our children. That is why I have taken every action in my power to ensure that our schools have the resources they need to stay open and teach our kids.

“All we needed from Gov. Tom Wolf was one signature that would have stopped any possibility of school closings in Pennsylvania. Instead, he used his veto pen to cut over $3 billion in school funding that is desperately needed to finish the school year.”

Yet Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan lays the blame squarely on the former Gov. Tom Corbett and the Republican-controlled legislature.

“Governor Wolf has been fighting since day one to fix the multi-billion dollar deficit and to restore the devastating cuts to education he inherited,” Sheridan said. “In response to several inquiries from school districts who have been suffering for years, the Department of Education sent a memo to districts detailing what steps would need to be taken to shut down a school. We are not aware of any imminent closures, but we are working to assist districts with the information they are requesting.”

Wolf is willing to work with the Legislature to “restore the cuts to schools that he supported and to fix the deficit of more than $2 billion that he helped create. Unfortunately, we simply have to acknowledge reality and basic math: Pennsylvania is facing a huge deficit and drastically underfunded schools resulting from years of fiscal irresponsibility and shortsighted policies.”

Causer disagreed.

“That’s the same rhetoric we’ve been hearing,” he said. “The governor vetoed half of the school funding. That’s all on him. There’s $3 billion sitting in the state treasury that could be sent out to schools. The governor is holding schools hostage in a crisis that he manufactured. It’s absurd.”

Gabler said his concern over the ongoing budget issues is mounting.

“As we approach the month of March, I am increasingly concerned that the consequences of Gov. Wolf’s $3 billion education funding veto will fall squarely on Pennsylvania’s students,” the legislator said. “Now the governor has his staff focusing on ‘school closure checklists’ for schools rather than working on solutions to the crisis he himself created. He rejected the balanced budget we passed that included over $400 million in increases for public schools because he continues to demand unnecessary and irresponsible tax increases on working Pennsylvanians.”

Gabler added, “Let me be clear — school closings do not need to happen. I call on Gov. Wolf to stop this irresponsible game of ‘chicken’ in which he continues to hold school funding hostage. It is past time for Gov. Wolf to agree to release the funds that taxpayers have placed in our state treasury that are necessary to keep schools open. In the name of our children, I call on him to do so before it is too late.”

Sheridan said the governor is looking forward to continue work with the Legislature.

“Governor Wolf is working to pass a balanced budget that fixes the deficit, makes historic investments in education at all levels, and he looks forward to continuing to work with Republicans in the legislature to accomplish this.”

With a word of caution, he concluded, “If we do not take this path, the only other path is one that embraces the failed status quo that Representative Gabler has supported and this will lead to a ballooning deficit, credit downgrades, billion dollar cuts to schools and human services and huge increases in property taxes for middle-class families and seniors.”