This week we learned the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on our public schools. The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) estimates that school districts will lose between $850 million to $1.07 billion in local revenue alone in the 2020-2021 school year. You can find the report here.
State lawmakers must take action to prevent catastrophic cuts to our local public schools.
Dr. Timothy J. Shrom, PASBO director of research explained the problem:
“In an economic downturn we know that unemployment goes up, thereby reducing our local income tax revenue, and we know that the real estate market will be affected resulting in a reduction of our real estate transfer tax We also know that our taxpayers will need more time to pay, thus reducing property tax revenues, and with the significant cuts in the rates, interest earnings will take a hit as well.”
Without additional federal and state funding to help fill the local revenue shortfall, we will see mass layoffs, deep cuts in programs and services for students, and higher property taxes in school districts in every corner of the state.
But this catastrophe is not inevitable.
State lawmakers can take action today to help ensure that our school districts remain whole. They can prevent our students from losing even more than they have already lost this year.
To prevent devastating cuts in our local public schools state lawmakers must:
- Keep state funding for public education at least at 2019-2020 levels. Any cut in state funding would force unnecessary cuts in our local schools and higher property taxes for our communities.
- Enact Governor Wolf’s proposed charter school funding reforms to end overpayments to cyber charter schools and eliminate the profit that charter schools reap off of students with disabilities. This would provide $280 million in savings for school districts.
- Provide each school district its full allocation of funding in the federal COVID-19 relief CARES Act. Federal funding should NOT be used to replace state dollars. This would provide $400 million in new funding for school districts and $71 million for charter schools.
If state lawmakers fail to act, school districts will be forced to lay off tens of thousands of teachers and other employees, increase class sizes, eliminate programs including art, music, and sports, and make other cuts that will hurt students and devastate communities.