Harrisburg meeting fails to resolve Philly school funding crisis

 A lengthy meeting between top Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Corbett is over without a resolution of Philadelphia’s school-funding crisis.

Protesters chanted loudly in the Capitol corridors Monday while leaders huddled privately to discuss a bill to authorize Philadelphia to levy a $2-a-pack cigarette tax to generate more than $80 million a year for city schools.

School district officials have said they’ll send out 1,300 layoff notices by Aug. 15 and schools won’t open as scheduled Sept. 8 unless the bill is passed.

Both houses have signaled support for the bill in preliminary votes, but it’s been stalled by GOP in-fighting.House Speaker Sam Smith says the Corbett administration could give the city an advance on its state subsidy for buy time for lawmakers to pass the measure.