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About the author
Janis Risch is executive director of Good Schools Pennsylvania, a statewide network working for adequate and equitable school funding.
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Costing out: Building the case for a new funding formula
by Janis Risch
Which of these two commonly heard views is true?
A) Philadelphia is a struggling school district with inadequate resources; or
B) Philadelphia has received sufficient revenues since the state takeover five years ago and must be misusing its funds.
Discussions of these views often leave ordinary citizens confused. A host of organizing and advocacy groups, however, are working to clarify the issues and make sure Philadelphia students end up receiving the resources they need.
Across the state, per pupil spending ranges from about $8,000 all the way up to $18,000. Within this continuum, the Philadelphia School District has available $10,834 per pupil, which is a few dollars below the state average.
However, if we are serious about preparing all students to be successful, we must acknowledge that the Philadelphia School District faces educational challenges that are not typical of all school districts.
For instance, the District’s percentage of low-income enrollment far exceeds the state average (70 percent vs. 28 percent). The District should be providing smaller class sizes, not larger ones, to students who start school without the benefit of several years of preschool exposure to books, educational games, and enrichment activities. When children can’t concentrate because they are hungry or sick or traumatized, the District has no choice but to provide meals and other supports. Similarly, the Philadelphia School District is responsible for educating many more English language learners and students with disabilities than is typical across the state, requiring the provision of services and resources that are not required in other school districts.
The reality of modest funds and vast needs suggests that continued underfunding, rather than misuse of funds, is the primary reason that the School District is falling short.
Inadequate resources mean the District is unable to predictably provide quality early childhood education, small class sizes, safe and healthy buildings, a diverse and challenging curriculum, and other education strategies that are known to be essential in closing achievement gaps.
To end the uncertainty about funding, Philadelphia’s education organizing and advocacy groups are calling for a statewide funding formula based on an objective determination of the resources needed to prepare every student to meet the state’s academic standards.
The General Assembly and Governor Rendell approved a statewide “costing-out” study to answer this question in July 2006, and the results of the study are expected in November 2007. More than 38 other states have undertaken costing-out studies, which seek to determine the base cost (sometimes referred to as a “foundation level”) of educating a student who has no special needs, attending a district with no special circumstances, to meet state requirements.
Additionally, costing-out studies determine the variations on this foundation level that take into account particular factors impacting school districts (i.e., size, location) and their students (i.e. special education, poverty and limited English proficiency).
The majority of costing-out studies have been state-initiated, while other studies have been court-ordered or initiated by other parties. At least one state – Oregon – has established a commission that is responsible for reviewing every two years the best practices and funding required for meeting the state’s educational goals.
Philadelphia’s education organizing and advocacy community is using the imminent release of the statewide costing-out study as a rallying point, employing several strategies to advance school funding reform:
- Calling on the Philadelphia School District to carefully document its “opportunity gap,” that is, the ways that it continues to lack sufficient resources to effectively lower class size; to ensure safe and healthy learning environments for students and teachers; to provide a rich academic curriculum; or to offer mentoring, coaching and professional development to new teachers.
- Engaging students and teachers who are valiantly striving to learn and teach in less-than-ideal circumstances to share their stories in an effort to help educate legislators and the media and other citizens.
- Urging that the School Reform Commission, the next school CEO, the next mayor and other community leaders not give up advocating at the state level, even as they work diligently at the local level to improve our schools.
- Organizing students, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders to communicate to state legislators and the governor the expectation that the costing-out study will be used as the basis of a sound school funding formula.
In the eyes of Philadelphia's education organizing and advocacy community, there are moments when citizens can affect important policy decisions. This is one of them.