- Pennsylvania has a funding shortfall of more than $5 billion for public schools, Democratic lawmakers on the Basic Education Funding Committee reported Thursday.
- A phased increase in aid over seven years is recommended to address this gap, which the report suggests should begin immediately.
- The only Democrat on the committee joined Republicans in voting against approving the report.
A committee reviewing funding for Pennsylvania's public schools suggested Thursday that the state has a more than $5 billion funding gap for school districts and should start immediately to close the gap. The report was approved by a narrow margin.
The vote on the report by the Basic Education Funding Committee was supported by Democrats and members of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration. The committee's vote was 8-7, with one Republican and one Democrat voting against it.
The report's main recommendation is that states should begin immediately to close a school funding gap of more than $5 billion and increase aid gradually over seven years.
Pennsylvania schools poised to return to court if state budget runs out of funding
The report is somewhat different from what the school district, which won the landmark case, is seeking from the state. District attorneys proposed increasing state aid by $6.2 billion in phases over five years.
Another Republican report was defeated on party lines during a meeting in the Capitol hearing room.
The Democrats' report contains only recommendations and does not call for action by Mr. Shapiro or Pennsylvania's politically divided Legislature.
But Democrats are seeking at least this year's budget and each subsequent year to address last year's court ruling that found Pennsylvania's public school funding system violates the constitutional rights of students in poor districts. They hope to provide a budget blueprint.
“This is the end of the beginning,” Rep. Mike Starra (D-Lancaster), co-chair of the committee, said during the meeting. “There's still a lot of work to do.”
The district's teachers' union and lawyers, who won the case in court last year, welcomed the Democratic Party's report.
The Pennsylvania State Capitol on December 16, 2021 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
House Minority Leader Brian Cutler (R-Lancaster) criticized the report for containing “simply spend more money” solutions to fixing flaws in Pennsylvania's school funding system. .
The Republican report says districts should define the instructional changes needed to improve student achievement, and does not provide numbers on how much more, if any, they will need to spend on K-12 education. Didn't show it.
School officials say underfunded school districts are more likely to have larger class sizes, less qualified teachers and outdated buildings, textbooks, technology and curriculum. Many underfunded school districts are rapidly growing, disproportionately poor, or have extremely minority student bodies.
The next step could come on February 6, when Mr. Shapiro must present his second annual budget proposal to lawmakers.
Shapiro issued a warning about how the state would pay for billions of dollars in new school funding, declining to say on Thursday what exactly he would propose.
Lawyers for the school districts that filed the lawsuit said the $5 billion was “transformative,” but it was less than they asked for and was rolled out on a slower schedule.
Still, that means thousands more teachers, counselors and librarians in schools, said Dan Uverick Acklesberg of the Public Interest Law Center, one of the nonprofit law groups that represented school districts in court. .
“And it's also a commitment to do something we would never do in the commonwealth, which is actually come up with reasonable, evidence-based numbers for what each school district needs to educate their children.” Uberik Acklesberg said.
By law, the commission will meet to make recommendations to lawmakers on how to update the formula that guides how nearly $8 billion in state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania's 500 school districts. It was mandatory.
But Republicans and Democrats on the committee disagree on what recommendations the committee should make in response to the court's decision.
Pennsylvania ready to allow longer school days and shorter weeks
The Democratic Party's report calculated a target amount of money that each school district should receive in order to provide students with a constitutionally adequate and fair education.
The report says there is a current funding shortfall of $5.4 billion, which is about 18% of the district's spending. Of that amount, $5.1 billion is the state's responsibility and $291 million is the responsibility of low-tax school districts, the report said.
The recommendations also require the state to resume spending at least $300 million a year to help maintain school facilities and, in theory, provide an additional $955 million a year to school districts that levy unreasonably high taxes. They say the money should be sent and the school district should get a tax break.
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The report is the culmination of months of public hearings by a committee of 12 lawmakers and three members of the Shapiro administration.
