A man who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize attended the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence while in high school, but the state's vaunted five-week summer program for exceptional students is now at risk.
Gov. Ed Rendell is proposing a $29 billion budget that doesn't include $3.2 million for the eight schools for high school honors students. Rendell has said cutting money for the program is painful.
It's also frustrating for former students and the people who put together the governor's schools for the arts, science and six other fields of study.
"I hope there is some way to maintain it," said Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis. "The school was extremely important for me when I started."
Kernis, now 49, said he attended the governor's school in the 1970s while attending high school in Bucks County.
He won a Pulitzer for music composition in 1998.
Now a Yale music professor, Kernis was advising the Minnesota Orchestra when contacted Thursday. He now lives in New York.
The governor's schools "have been unique for Pennsylvania and for students," Kernis said.
Like Kernis, a number of Alle-Kiski students have attended the schools during its 30-year history.
Those contacted mirrored Kernis' hope that the program can be salvaged.
"It's a huge opportunity and helped me to adapt for college," said Alea M. Kuczynski of Cheswick.
Now a sophomore at Penn State Altoona, Kuczynski attended the agriculture school of excellence in 2006.
Shei is majoring in veterinarian and biomedical science and hopes to become a zoo vet or provide care for horses.
Upper Burrell resident Doug Woods was surprised that Rendell mentioned the governor's schools when he unveiled budget plans Wednesday.
For the past 13 years Woods, 58, of Oak Lake Road, has directed the governor's school of excellence in the arts held at Mercyhurst College in Erie.
Other governor's schools are for science, teaching, agricultural science, information technology, international studies and global entrepreneurship.
"It doesn't look good, but I'm waiting for the dust to settle," said Woods, a retired teacher. "I'm still hopeful, but there's a 50-50 chance that the schools will be shut down."
Governor's school alums are filing appeals with Rendell and legislators to save the program.
Thousands have replied to a Facebook appeal entitled "Save the 'Govies.'"
Since 1973, about 15,000 students have attended one of the eight schools.
Other graduates include actor Kevin Bacon, author Alison Sebold and hundreds of doctors, attorneys and others with Ph.D.s Bacon and Sebold were not available for comment Thursday.
The schools emphasize excellence and give the students a chance, through hard work, to see if their field of interest will be their career path, after all.
The schools also encourage leadership and community involvement.
"We use the capital letter 'A' to describe it," Woods said. "Each one stands on a leg: inspire artists, show them new audiences and how to advocate for the arts."
For five weeks in the summer, governor's school students live at state colleges or universities and receive instruction from internationally known professors. High school juniors and seniors are selected on merit.
Until now, the state has paid full tuition.
Philadelphia-area prep school teacher Kate Plows, who attended the governor's schools and later was a residential director, said Gov. Rendell was faced with hard choices.
"Certainly he has put forth so many good things that it's particularly hard to be critical," she said.
"Still, the news hit hard."
The $3.2 million is a "drop in the bucket," Plows said, but that drop "holds a big investment for the future."
