On Wednesday, February 5th, Governor Wolf gave his budget address.
Gov. Wolf’s proposed state budget for 2021-2022 demonstrates his understanding of the extensive unmet needs in Pennsylvania’s public schools and his commitment to fixing the unfairness of our current funding system.
Gov. Wolf’s proposed historic investment of $1.5 billion in public K-12 education would substantially increase resources available to students in the commonwealth’s most profoundly underfunded schools and make significant progress toward closing the resource and opportunity gaps that harm our most vulnerable children and threaten Pennsylvania’s future workforce, tax base, and economy. This budget provides additional basic and special education funding to all school districts and would create more than $229 million in savings on charter tuition payments for districts.
It is a budget that Pennsylvania’s students deserve.
Click HERE for slides from our budget webinar presentation. (video link to follow in a future email).
Pennsylvania’s School Funding Problem
Pennsylvania ranks 44th in the nation for state share of funding for public education. A low state share means an overreliance on local wealth (property taxes) to fund schools.
Most state funding is not distributed based on student need. Just 11% of state Basic Education Funding flows through the formula that was adopted in 2016 and takes into account student need and district factors. The rest ($5.5 billion) is based on student enrollment in 1992.
Low-wealth communities that need the most and try the hardest (many have some of the highest property tax rates in the commonwealth), get the least.
COVID laid bare the inequities in Pennsylvania’s school funding system and left no doubt that the current system is causing significant harm to Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable students.
Here is what is in Gov. Wolf’s proposed budget:
Proposed $1.3 billion increase in Basic Education Funding
All Basic Education Funding would be driven through the Basic Education Funding/fair funding formula to direct state dollars to school districts based on students’ needs and district factors.
$1.152 billion in Basic Education Funding will be added to the formula and an adjustment ensures that no district will lose money when the funding is redistributed.
$200 million in additional Basic Education Funding will be added on top of this to provide every school district in the commonwealth with an increase in BEF.
Click HERE for spreadsheet with proposed BEF increases. Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education
Proposed $200 million increase in special education funding.
Between the 2008-09 school year and the 2018-19 school year, special education costs grew by $2 billion, while state special education aid grew by only $110 million. School districts raised the difference in local property taxes to pay for these mandated costs. The proposed $200 million investment in special education fuding is necessary and long overdue, but still falls far short of what schools need.
Click HERE for a spreadsheet with proposed special education funding for each school district. Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education.
Charter School Reforms
Funding reforms propose to more closely match the tuition school districts pay charter schools with charters’ actual costs. They include a flat tuition rate of $9500 for each cyber charter regular education student and the application of the special education funding formula to all charter schools.
These reforms would save taxpayers at least $229 million.
Gov. Wolf is also proposing increased academic and fiscal accountability for the charter school sector, including statewide performance standards for charter schools, a moratorium on new cyber charters, ensuring charter operators are held to financial and ethical standards, and greater financial oversight.
Click HERE for a spreadsheet of charter school tuition savings for each district Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education
Nellie Bly Scholarships for Pennsylvania State Higher System of Education (PASSHE) students
Pennsylvania’s gross underinvestment in higher education leaves our college graduates with some of the highest student debt in the nation. And many students cannot afford to go to college, leaving the commonwealth without the well-educated workforce we need for a strong economy.
This proposal would provide $199 million in scholarships for full-time students in Pennsylvania’s state-owned, public Pennsylvania System of Higher Education System (PASSHE), with priority for student in the fields of education and nursing.
Students would receive up to $5,700/year in annual scholarships, depending on their family income.
These would be paid for by directing funding away from cash prizes given to race horse owners into this scholarship program.
Visit www.kidsoverhorseracing.org to learn more about the Race Horse Development Fund.
EITC/OSTC school voucher programs
The Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs allow businesses to divert $190 million/year in business tax payments away from the state Treasury and into private organizations that provide scholarships to students attending private and religious schools. Under current law there is no financial or academic accountability.
The Wolf proposal:
- Reduces funding scholarship organizations are allowed to keep from 20% to 5%. This will increase scholarship money available to students by $36 million.
- Requires scholarship organizations to report more information about the families that receive this funding. Current state law explicitly prohibits the collection of information that would demonstrate whether or not the EITC/OSTC programs benefit children in poverty or help students in low-achieving schools attend higher achieving schools.
Click HERE to learn more about the EITC/OSTC voucher programs.
School Construction
$200 million for PlanCon, a program that partially reimburses school districts for their construction projects. A moratorium on this funding that began in 2016 and continues today has left districts and local taxpayers with the full burden of school construction costs.
$1 billion expansion of the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant program that includes grant availability for toxic contaminant remediation projects for schools and for broadband providers and schools to increase students’ access to high speed internet.
Paying for increased state funding for schools through increased state taxes on the 1/3 of Pennsylvanians who are the highest wage earners.
The current tax system is regressive. Working and low-income families pay the same tax rate as the most well-off.
This proposal raises Pennsylvania’s Personal Income Tax (PIT) from 3.07% to 4.49% AND expands the special tax forgiveness credit.
Overall 67% of Pennsylvanians will get a tax cut or pay no increase.
Governor Wolf’s 2021-2022 budget proposal would make a real difference in the lives of Pennsylvania’s children. We are excited for this budget season and hope that you are ready to join us in fighting for a budget that students deserve.
We are working on talking points and toolkits to help with your advocacy and will share them soon!
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