We recently joined our partners from the PA Schools Work campaign in urging Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation to support additional, significant, flexible funding for public K-12 education in the next phase of emergency COVID-19 response legislation. This will be critical in helping districts avoid mass layoffs and severe cuts in programs and services that will harm students.

Click HERE to send a letter to your members of Congress asking them to support additional, robust federal aid to school districts in the next phase of emergency COVID-19 legislation.

While we are grateful that Congress allocated a COVID-19 emergency response package (the CARES Act) that will provide $13.5 billion to schools nationwide ($524 million to Pennsylvania’s schools), these funds are just a fraction of the $79 billion that the federal government provided to schools in 2009 during the Great Recession and not enough to replace the funding schools anticipate losing in local revenues.

And, as we state in the PA Schools Work letter:

By every indication, this economic downturn will be much deeper than in 2009. Without more federal relief, the impacts on schools could far exceed the damage of the $1 billion state funding cut of 2011, which led to cuts in school programs and the termination of 27,000 teacher and other school personnel jobs.

Pennsylvania’s school districts are bracing for a profound loss of local revenue. Statewide, school districts anticipate losing $325 million in local funding this school year is out and more than $1 billion in 2020-2021, as earned income/wage tax and property tax revenues decline along with other local revenues districts collect (real estate transfer taxes, etc.).

At the state level, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center is projecting a budget deficit of as much as $5 billion or more for 2020-2021. With unemployment soaring and economic activity collapsing, the income and sales taxes the state collects are steeply declining, leaving a massive hole in the budget.

Click HERE to send a letter to your members of Congress.

Making matters even worse, many of Pennsylvania’s poorest school districts invested substantial amounts of money into purchasing technology and equipment so that students could engage in remote learning during the extended school closures this spring. These were new and unexpected expenses that districts will need to pay for.

Pennsylvania students have already lost a great deal and every effort should be made to keep them from falling further behind. Please contact your members of Congress today. Pennsylvania’s students need their help.