Editorial: Santorum, R-Va. / Is the senator an 'inhabitant' of Pennsylvania?

The Penn Hills School District asked Sen. Rick Santorum a $38,000 question. That is whether his children are residents of the municipality to the point that their educations should be paid for by Penn Hills taxpayers.

On Wednesday he gave his answer and it was no.

The senator shouldn't have felt put upon. It's the same question that other districts routinely ask of families who impose themselves on a public school system where they do not live -- sometimes because of athletics, sometimes because of better education.

Five Santorum children have been home-schooled at their house in Leesburg, Va., through the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, an education paid for by the Penn Hills district to the tune of $38,000 a year, until it became apparent recently that they don't live in Penn Hills.

The senator's office issued a statement two days ago saying he and his wife, Karen, are withdrawing their children from the cyber school. But that doesn't mean they'll be attending any of the brick-and-mortar schools of the Penn Hills district either. The commute from the Santorum home in Leesburg, Va., would be onerous.

All of which begs a much bigger question: Is Rick Santorum R-Pa. or R-Va.? No one should represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate because he once lived here or because he visits all 67 counties every year. A traveling salesman can do that.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution says, "No person shall be a Senator ... who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen." Rick Santorum last won election in November 2000, when he owned the house at 111 Stephens Lane in Penn Hills plus a house in Virginia. Where he was an "inhabitant" at the time only he can say.

He faces re-election in 2006, but if that election were held today, the two-term Republican would be hard-pressed to convince voters that he inhabits a house on Stephens Lane. Sure, he and his wife pay taxes on the house. They also use the address for voter registration, but so do two other people. When a Post-Gazette reporter visited the house last Friday, a young man came to the door and declined to comment. He wasn't Rick Santorum.

It gets worse. The two-bedroom house that the Santorum children called home for education purposes and that gives Mr. and Mrs. Santorum the right to vote in Pennsylvania lacks an occupancy permit. And the property tax break from the homestead exemption claimed by the Santorums on the Penn Hills house is allowed under law only if the dwelling is their "permanent home."

It's a strange case of political turnabout. In his initial House race against Rep. Doug Walgren in 1990, challenger Santorum attacked the incumbent from Mt. Lebanon for buying a house and raising his children in McLean, Va. Now Rick Santorum of Leesburg, Va., is saying that he is and he isn't a resident of Pennsylvania.

Well, which is it?

Although this editorial board has differed with the senator on most of his votes in Washington, we would be the first to point out that he has been an advocate for the interests of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.

But this has nothing to do with one's record. Pennsylvanians fundamentally deserve a senator who lives in Pennsylvania -- unless the United States wants to outsource even its Senate seats.

By rights, the Santorums should pay back to Penn Hills the cost of the education provided by local taxpayers for their out-of-state children. What's more, the senator has to prove to the people of Pennsylvania that he is one of them, not just a visitor from the state of Virginia.

First published on November 19, 2004 at 12:00 am