On May 29th, Governor Wolf signed a stopgap budget that was passed by the General Assembly. This budget provides five months of flat funding for most state programs and a full twelve months of flat funding for public education.  There are no cuts to basic and special education or Ready to Learn block grants for K-12 schools, and no cuts to Pre-K Counts or to funding for community colleges or the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Certainty for school districts

This 2020-2021 partial budget provides certainty to school districts as they work through their own budgets. It also demonstrates the commitment of Governor Wolf and many state lawmakers to supporting Pennsylvania’s public schools.

Questionable allocation formula for COVID-19 Disaster Emergency School Health and Safety Grant funding

This budget also includes $200 million in additional funding through a one-time grant program to help districts pay for substantial costs associated with COVID-19.  Legislation directs that $150 million CARES Act stimulus funding that the state received and $50 million in funding that was allocated to the Pennsylvania Department of Education pay for this.

Through this grant, each school district will receive a minimum of $120,000 and each intermediate unit, career and technical center, charter school, regional charter school and cyber charter school receives $90,000. Any funds remaining after these payments will be distributed to school districts based on districts’ 2018-19 average daily membership.

COVID-19 laid bare the tremendous inequities in our education system. Students in profoundly underfunded school districts have been hit the hardest by the transition to remote learning because their districts lacked even the most basic resources before the school closure. Allocating federal COVID-19 relief funding through the bipartisan Basic Education Funding formula would have ensured that school districts would have received funding proportionate to the needs of their students. This formula, unfortunately, does not achieve that goal.

This budget speaks to the power and importance of our advocacy.  

For years public education advocates have done the hard work of helping state lawmakers understand the value of our public schools. You have logged hours making phone calls, sending emails, visiting lawmakers, attending events, and more.  And it has made a real difference for students. Without advocacy, we would have likely seen cuts in state funding for public education similar to those after the Great Recession. Thank you!

But our work is not done.

Flat funding in the state budget and one-time grants are only the beginning of what is necessary for students to return to schools with the resources they need in the fall.

School districts anticipate $850 million to $1 billion in local revenue losses and without state funding reforms, charter school tuition rates will increase, costing districts an additional $200 million.

Throughout the commonwealth, districts are preparing  to lay off teachers and make deep cuts in programs and services for students as they work to figure out how to balance their budgets and restart school in the fall in a way that will keep students and teachers safe from COVID-19.

Over the summer we will be working on advocacy for:

1. Additional federal funding for school districts. The $13.5 billion that was provided to schools nationwide through the CARES Act is just a fraction of the $79 billion that the federal government provided during Great Recession.  

2. Charter school funding reforms that will end gross overpayments to cyber charter schools and eliminate the profit that charters reap off of students with disabilities. This would save districts more than $200 million and curb wasteful spending by charter schools on things like advertising.

3. New revenue sources to fund  public education (more info on that soon!!).

Pennsylvania students have already lost a great deal this school year and we need to make every effort to keep them from falling further behind. I hope we can count on you to continue advocating for students this summer so that lawmakers will make decisions to support students when they finish the budget in the fall!

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Education Voters of PA is Pennsylvania’s only statewide public education advocacy and policy organization. We were founded in 2008 and are a trusted resource for thousands of supporters throughout the commonwealth.

Join our movement to support fair and adequate public school funding for all students and for policies that will strengthen public education and help build the great public schools Pennsylvania’s children need and deserve.