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More than a thousand high school students from throughout the area will get to ask questions of Pennsylvania's first lady on Monday morning at Carnegie Library of Homestead.

The meeting between local students and First Lady Marjorie Rendell was organized by McKeesport's Consortium for Public Education.

Besides being the wife of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Marjorie Rendell is a judge in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Penn and Villanova's law school.

Because of seating limitations in the library's music hall, the event is not open to the general public.

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About 30 high schools will be represented, said Linda Croushore, executive director of the consortium.

"They will have discussed questions in their civics classes, and they'll be prepared to ask Mrs. Rendell about their role in the community," Croushore said.

The meeting is designed to get students thinking about their possible futures as "the next leaders governing the municipalities in Western Pennsylvania," she said, "and I'm very excited about the visit and honored that Mrs. Rendell has trusted us to organize it."

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Meanwhile, Croushore and others interested in public education have some questions of their own for Judge Rendell's husband.

They'd like to know when the Democratic governor will settle his spat with Senate Republicans and finally pass a budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Pennsylvania is the last state in the nation without a spending plan in place. The previous budget expired June 30 --- more than two months ago.

Croushore said the consortium, which represents 45 school districts in seven counties, has been lobbying legislators to find a compromise as quickly as possible.

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The state has already missed two of the payments it owes to public school districts for educational support services, she said. That's forced some districts to borrow money to pay expenses.

"And that means they are going to have to pay interest on the money, which is going to cut into the very little bit of unrestricted money they have," Croushore said. "As a result, schools are suffering."

(Jason Davidek, spokesman for the McKeesport Area School District, said the system has been able to draw money out of its fund balance, or budget surplus, to avoid canceling programs or borrowing money.

("But obviously, we're hoping for a swift consensus and a resolution to the funding situation," he told the Almanac.)

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The consortium is urging taxpayers to contact Rendell and local legislators, including state Sen. Sean Logan of Monroeville and state Reps. Jim Casorio of Irwin, Marc Gergely of White Oak and Bill Kortz of Dravosburg, and press them to settle their differences.

"There's not much else to say, except that it's very important that everyone else contact their legislators and urge them to act in the best interests of the future of this commonwealth," Croushore said.

"We're trying to be a state that truly loves its children, and you don't love your children by constantly cutting things," she said.