William Hite, then the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District, stands with kids during a 2022 school funding rally held by the Children First advocacy group outside City Hall.Public education advocates claimed a win in Pennsylvania’s new budget: a formal recognition by the state that schools needBut whether Pennsylvania will supply that money in the years to come — and whether it will be enough to fix the state’sWhile the deal signed by Democratic Gov.
to fund their schools as more affluent communities — advocates have pushed the state to calculate just how much funding is needed to provide students an adequate education., based on what districts that meet state standards are spending, and the specific needs of each community’s student populations.
What was missing Thursday was any longer-term plan to closing the gap. While House Democrats had passed a bill with a seven-year timeline, the budget deal ultimately agreed upon by lawmakers didn’t include any language binding the state in future years, as“Students need public schools that provide the support they need to reach meaningful opportunities today, not someday in the far future,” the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center said in a statement.
To assess how much money schools need, the budget formula takes into account a school district’s level of poverty; experts agree that poor students have greater needs and cost more to educate. Though some districts will see gains from the ACS measure, it will mean “pretty stunning losses” in funding for districts where the survey underrepresents poverty, Bowden said — noting that in some districts, particularly in rural parts of the state, the ACS measure is “more than 100% off” the poverty levels reported by districts.
“We’ve put in this a degree of taxpayer protection,” Pittman added in floor remarks Thursday night. “There’s not smoke and mirrors here. There’s transparency and accountability.”Overall, the budget includes a more than $1 billion increase for K-12 schools: $525 million to bring underfunded districts closer to adequacy, and— which are funded by school districts, based on enrollment and what districts spend per student.