February 28, 2000

Sanders Says Moran Wrong in Attack on Sanders' Record in York

NEW FREEDOM, PA - In a profile in Sunday's Hanover Evening Sun, John Moran attacked Jeff Sanders' record of service in York County by stating, "What he [Sanders] knows about York, he'll have to read about." (Hanover Evening Sun, February 27, 2000, Section A) John Moran's understanding of Sanders' record in York is wrong and the record makes it clear.

Jeff Sanders served on the school board of the Southern York County School District from 1995 to 1999, the final year as its president.

• During his time on the school board, Jeff Sanders had to make tough decisions to keep property taxes down in York County and the quality of public education high. To do that, Jeff had to work with other board members and school administrators on five years worth of multi-million dollar school budgets.
  
  
• At the end of Jeff Sanders' tenure, the Southern York County School District had property tax millage rates in the lowest third in the county, despite small class-sizes and a high rate of graduates moving on to college.
  
  
• Under Jeff's leadership of community responsibility and fiscal discipline, the district constructed Shrewsbury Elementary School, a state-of-the-art learning facility that had the lowest total construction cost per-square-foot of all the public schools built in Pennsylvania in 1997.
  
  
• Jeff Sanders co-founded a public-private partnership, the Education Foundation, of which he is currently president, for the express purpose of bringing schools and businesses together to raise money for scholarships and to put scientific equipment in Southern's classrooms. To date the foundation has raised $35,000.
  
  
• Jeff Sanders has been the Secretary of the York County Democratic Party for two years, working within the party to strengthen it.
  
  
• Jeff Sanders has voiced his concern for York County and its future by exercising his civic responsibility to vote every year since his return to Pennsylvania.
  
  
• When county leaders asked Jeff Sanders to run for the state legislature in 1998, he agreed and garnered thirty percent of the vote on election day against an entrenched incumbent who outspent him 10 to 1.

In short, Jeff Sanders has been representing Southern York County in non-paid positions of responsibility for our children's education and in capacities that go beyond civic duty. The record of accomplishment is clear and is one of which Jeff Sanders is proud.