January Newsflash
School funding equity still elusive after recent budget compromise
Still faced with a wide and persistent funding gap between wealthy and poor school districts, few advocates for public education funding in Pennsylvania are claiming victory in 2003's great state budget battle. But some are more upbeat about the new budget than others.
After a protracted standoff that delayed the enactment of a state budget, Governor Ed Rendell and members of the General Assembly finally signed off on a plan that includes state funding for the state's 501 school districts, just two days before Christmas.
The plan does little to change the fact that nationally, Pennsylvania consistently ranks close to the bottom among states in equitable school funding in an annual Education Week report that rates the states on public education. The state recently earned a funding equity grade of 'D-' on the report for the fourth consecutive year.
While the budget increases state spending on public schools, it falls far short of the governor's original plan, which had proposed as much as $686 million in new education spending toward a goal of increasing the state's share of education spending from below 40 percent to 50 percent.
The adopted budget package calls for modest school funding increases statewide: a 2.9 percent hike in the basic education subsidy and a 4.5 percent jump in special education funding. Starting in July, districts are also eligible to receive a total of $175 million in block grant funds to finance programs identified by the state as proven to raise student achievement.
The budget also provides an annual $34 million for tutoring this year and next for schools that fell short of No Child Left Behind academic standards in math or reading.
The federally-funded Head Start program will receive a supplement of $15 million targeted at children from low-income families, which is a first for the state.
Philadelphia will receive $51 million in new funding this year from these increases, School District Deputy Chief of Staff Timothy Spreitzer said. The state estimates that Philadelphia will be eligible for an additional $35 million through the new block grant program in the coming school year. The exact amount is to be determined by April.
Budget a mixed bag, advocates say
In light of the fiscal strain that is causing budget cutbacks in
many states, any increase in education spending shows progress,
said Janis Risch, spokeswoman for Good
Schools Pennsylvania, an education organizing group that conducted
a grassroots campaign to support the governor's "Plan for a
New Pennsylvania" last fall.
"Our work is by no means complete," Risch added, emphasizing that Good Schools will continue organizing to build a strong citizen voice for equal access to good public education in Pennsylvania.
Timothy Allwein, of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), a nonprofit association of public school boards statewide, said while the bill does provide some new spending dollars, it fails to fundamentally change the way schools are funded, an expressed goal of the earlier Rendell plan.
"I'm not sure that it accomplishes any type of long-term funding change," said Allwein.
Some advocates say the budget misses the mark in the short term, too.
Among them is Timothy Potts, director of the education advocacy group Pennsylvania School Reform Network. Potts said the budget fails the more than 100,000 four-year-olds currently living in the state by not providing funding for targeted early childhood education initiatives this year.
"They will never be four years old again. It's an absolutely lost opportunity," Potts said.
New programs' stability uncertain
In addition to the regular funds the state gives local districts
each year, the governor's initial education plan proposed the creation
of separate block grants for early childhood education, student
achievement, and school accountability.
The outcome of the budget compromise is a single $175 million block grant program, which eligible districts can tap to implement a state-approved list of programs proven to improve student performance.
Some observers say this will be insufficient for many districts to launch new programs, especially if districts cannot secure additional local funds to supplement the costs of operating these programs.
"For most [districts] I'm not sure that the funding is adequate [or] that it is really going to encourage them to start new programs that they don't already have," Allwein said.
But the formula for distributing the block
grant is weighted towards districts like Philadelphia, where a large
number of students fail to meet standards on the state's PSSA exam.
Spreitzer said District officials have already pledged to use that
money to create standards-based preschool programs, further reduce
class size in primary grades, and develop targeted afterschool programs
for early grades students.
Laying groundwork for future funding
reform?
While the 2003-04 budget calls for significantly less education
funding than was put forth in the Governor's original proposal,
both state and local education officials expressed optimism that
future education spending reform will occur over the next three
years of the governor's term.
Rendell administration officials are now pushing for legislation that would generate new gambling revenues, some of which could be used to equalize school funding.
State Education Secretary Vicki Phillips said this budget is just phase one of the administration's plans to make education funding more equitable across the state.
"This is merely a down payment on the longer-term work to be done," Phillips said at a press conference in late December.
Spreitzer called the budget compromise "a tremendous first step" towards more equitable funding across the state, pointing out that improved student performance would win over legislators resistant to putting more money into public schools.
"Showing the results of this historic investment will certainly aid that process as we go year-to-year to seek maintenance of funding for those programs," Spreitzer said.
The optimism of education officials, however, has not convinced Potts that the Republican-dominated General Assembly will be any more willing to commit to real school spending reform in 2004-05.
"I sure haven't seen anything in the legislature to make me confident that next year is going to be any better," he said.
Potts added that if Pennsylvania taxpayers do not receive the property-tax relief that Rendell had promised to offset a personal income tax increase, this could make the equitable funding battle even more difficult in the years to come.
That property-tax relief negotiations seem to center on generating new revenues through gambling expansion adds to this difficulty, he noted.
"The gaming issues are tough issues," said Potts. "I don't see an easy way out of this."
Contact Notebook staff writer Beandrea Davis at beandrea@thenotebook.org or 215-951-0330 x 156.