In Governor Corbett’s latest campaign ad, Governor Corbett tries to rebrand himself from this:
to this:
The only problem with the governor’s latest rebranding effort, the other “Tom,” Tom Wolf, is 4 months of air time and millions of dollars spent ahead of Governor Tom Corbett. The governor’s campaign ad featured Sue Corbett, Tom Corbett’s wife, their adopted grandson and Commonwealth Foundation talking points touting Governor Corbett’s record level per-pupil and basic education spending.
The campaign advertisement is nothing but a complete and utter bullshit piece of revisionist history on his “teaching career” and his less than stellar education record. It’s pretty obvious that the Corbett campaign knows how to read polling data and see that his handling of education will be the largest reason as to why people are going to go out and vote this November. In the ad, Sue Corbett mentions that they were both public school teachers and that “education is really important.” In fact, the governor was a teacher for one year.
Then comes the bullshit…
Sue Corbett goes on to say:
He’s increased the spending in the Education Department 1.5 billion dollars over what it was when he came into office. Pennsylvania is at the highest it’s ever been for spending in education. We’re also one of the top states in the country in what we spend per pupil on education. Tom wants to see results and those results are kids graduating. They’re ready for a career, they’re ready for college. Every kid in Pennsylvania deserves to be off to a good start and I think that’s what drives him every day he’s in office.
This 1.5 billion and record education spending the governor is advertising comes from “pre-stimulus” funding and increased spending on teacher pensions, which never makes it into the classroom, and his claims about “per pupil spending” being the highest in the country is false. According to the latest National Education Association study, Pennsylvania doesn’t rank in the top 10 when it comes to per pupil spending.
People know Governor Corbett’s record and know that his brand has been tarnished for three and a half years now. He can whitewash all he wants but nothing is going to change it.
