I've never attended any of the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence because of time constraints (I had planed on it), but the majority of my friends have. When they leave the school, they come out with a greater knowledge of different fields of study; one that they would never receive in high school. Recently in the news, Gov. Ed Rendell gave a preview of a budget proposal, around Jan, to cut state fundings in certain areas. Now the Gov's School is 100% state funded, so the students don't have to pay a dime. But in his new proposal, Rendell wants to cut funding toward the school which would result in closing it. First off, education should be the last place to cut funding; there are multiple areas that would better PA by being cut. Also, Rendell stands for bettering the education of PA by enabling people of lower/middle class status of education. So his actions are pretty hypocritical. Closing this school would cause over hundreds of students unable to attend a school and may discourage them from certain fields of study. Argh, this makes me upset. A couple of organizations have proposed to set up smaller versions of these schools, but it wouldn't be the same. Rendell also cut other helpful aspects of PA education... Here's a couple of news articles on the topic: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09070/954584-454.stm http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anoth ... 5823.story EDIT: Also, please sign the online petition here which has gained a lot of news attention(Takes less than 30 seconds!): http://www.petitiononline.com/pgse2009/petition.html <-- can't seem to get that to work. The petition is linked on the FB site. And Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/even ... 8692187403