Legislative Redistricting reinforces inequities
My name is Jennifer Van Buskirk Eaton. In December, my family will have lived at 1717 Crossfield Drive in Lancaster Township for ten years, after moving from southeast Lancaster City. My children attend Elizabeth Martin School, a K-8 building in the School District of Lancaster (SDOL). Our home is in Majority Leader Bryan Cutler’s 100th House District, and Scott Martin’s 13th Senate District. I am also an Executive Member of the NAACP Branch 2302 and a current School Board Director candidate in SDOL. As a school board candidate and local public education advocate, I spend a good deal of time talking to my neighbors about education equity and fair funding for Pennsylvania public schools. Lancaster City and Lancaster Township – both populated by moderate to progressive voters - are the two municipalities that make up the School District of Lancaster. The most recent redistricting map cracked our district such that SDOL is now ‘represented’ by four different legislators, including House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler (my current representative), and Senator Scott Martin, Republican Senate Education Committee Chair, both of whom receive campaign funds from PACs like the Commonwealth Foundation and other organizations that actively seek to dismantle and privatize public education. [Image] [Image] Left side: Turzai Partisan Map showing concentrations of Republican voters (Red) and Democratic Voters (Blue). Right side: Legislative Map for SDOL Blue=Mike Sturla. Brown=Brett Miller. Keith Greiner=Yellow. Brian Cutler=Green. Even Representative Mike Sturla, our only Democratic legislator and 18-year champion for education, has little success engaging bipartisan support from the Republican delegation in Lancaster County. The School District of Lancaster has more than double the number of students than every other district in the county. The delegation’s districts are smaller, more affluent, and from the global minority. The needs are different and the advocacy FOR US by these Republican legislators is just not there. As a future-elected official for the School District of Lancaster, which ranks 102nd for revenue per student in a Commonwealth that ranks 44th in state share of funding for public schools, I’m sure you can understand my concern. The School District of Lancaster educates approximately 11,000 students. Out of 499 Pennsylvania school districts, SDOL ranks 7th for children in poverty, 5th for English Language Learner (ELL) students, and 419th spending relative to need. This is what we also know about chronic underfunding of school: [image] When I first attended presentations by POWER Interfaith representatives about educational inequality in 2018, there were only three state house legislators representing the School District of Lancaster. My representative was Keith Greiner. In fact, at times I continue to receive campaign materials from Representative Greiner. On January 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the state's congressional district map, drawn following the 2010 Census, finding that the map constituted an illegal partisan gerrymander. On February 19, 2018, the court adopted a remedial map for use in the 2018 election cycle. Even though Republicans sued to prevent implementation of this map, House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler in fact GAINED territory cut from Greiner’s district, incorporating locations in Lancaster Township and Millersville, and further cracking any power of the electorate in these areas. This is my current representation. The blue arrow on the “Find Your Legislator” shows the location of my home. The red arrow also shows the location of my home on the legislative map. [Image] [Image] The practice of legislative cracking, which occurs when a constituency is divided between several districts to prevent it from achieving a majority in any one district, dissects our community and communities of interest like ours, and continues to perpetuate harm. These Republican legislators know their power is increasingly diminished by the browning of our population, and their ‘separate but equal approach’ to funding will deepen social, educational, and economic inequities – by further baking in systemic racism and institutional white supremacy. One of the strengths of my campaign is that I have a legislative background. I am well-educated, engaged, and aware, and I seek to share that knowledge to protect and empower my community. I frequently ask myself what I would do if I didn’t have the privilege of my experiences? Or ability to communicate my concerns? Would I know where to start and how to seek the help I need? It is in this spirit that decided to run for office, and it is in this spirit that I write to you today. Our current legislators benefit from keeping their constituents in the dark and limiting access to representation, but you have the power to align the 2020 Census Redistricting Map to the actual demographics and electorate and protect their representation. This is the first and most important step toward affecting change and meeting our communities’ needs. I greatly appreciate your willingness to hear my testimony and consider how my experience is anecdotal of a larger problem across the Commonwealth. Jennifer Van Buskirk Eaton 1717 Crossfield Drive Lancaster, PA 17603 (717) 575-2209 To read full testimony with images: visit here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fVKVFgW7m3voW_wkNXjLH6ve2Ztk1H8Kv0AVVdhaFaE/edit?usp=sharing