Government Schools

PA Set For School Funding Overhaul


By Evan Grossman | From Watchdog.org

Pennsylvania school districts will now receive state funding based on their actual needs, rather than assumptions and approximations.

The passage of landmark legislation this week leaves only the governor’s signature to enact a permanent education funding formula designed to distribute money to schools more evenly and accurately than it has been.

The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved House Bill 1552, which amends the Public School Code with the creation of a student-weighted formula to guide the distribution of basic education funding. The vote was 49-1 in the Senate and 188-3 in the House.

Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to sign the formula into law.

“I am pleased to have worked closely with the legislature to begin addressing distressed school districts and to take an important step to ensure the basic education fair funding formula is permanent,” Wolf said in a statement. “I look forward to continue working with leaders in the coming weeks to further address our challenges and reach agreement on a budget that is balanced, fixes the deficit and invests in education at all levels.”

Pennsylvania was one of three states, with North Carolina and Delaware, without a firm funding formula. As a result, districts have essentially been funded by a system that ensured they didn’t receive less money than the previous year. Measures such as “hold harmless,” which keeps money flowing to districts with shrinking enrollment but does not keep pace with growing districts, has helped to contribute to a system regarded among the most unfair education funding platforms in the country.

A year ago, a bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission concluded an analysis of how Pennsylvania schools are funded and offered recommendations for reforms to be included in a formula that places weights on enrollment, students living in poverty and other factors. The formula also includes a weight for charter students that will reimburse districts for “stranded costs,” or costs associated with the movement of students from traditional district to charter schools.

“The formula created by the Commission provides a predictable and transparent basis for the award of state education funding, offering districts at long last a stable and consistent basis upon which to make critical decisions about the operation of their schools each year,” Philadelphia School Advocacy Partners Executive Director Mike Wang said.

A nine-month budget impasse stalled the formula’s implementation, and even when the 2015-16 budget was finally passed this year politics continued to delay it.

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