Commission recommends 7-year school funding fix
A recommended change to Pennsylvania’s basic education funding formula could put Butler Area School District and others in the county on a more even financial footing with some of the wealthiest districts in the state.
Butler school district would be owed one of the largest sums of any district in Southwestern Pennsylvania if the state legislature adopts the recommendation made by a bipartisan commission Thursday, Jan. 11, regarding the public school funding formula.
If adopted, a formula recommended to the legislature could bring the school district about $27.8 million over the next seven years, or $4,000 per student per year.
“It’s sort of stunning. They talk about inequity in the tax system, it’s not equal for all students in Pennsylvania, so there are winners and losers in that system,” said Brian White, superintendent of the district. “We are not on the winning end of that proposition.”
The Pennsylvania Basic Education Funding Commission recommended to state legislators that funding for school districts across the state be rectified after a judge deemed reliance on the basic education funding formula unconstitutional in a decision Feb. 7, 2023. The report Thursday suggests the state is underfunding districts by more than $5 billion.
Michael Churchill, an attorney with Public Interest Law Center, said the yearslong court case, which the firm initially filed in 2014, included discovery and research, which found public school districts had an “adequacy shortfall” of $6.2 billion per year. The study by Matthew Kelly, a professor at Penn State College of Education, calculated adequacy targets for each district in Pennsylvania by analyzing spending levels in districts that are succeeding according to the state’s own academic standards.
According to Kelly, Mars Area School District’s adequacy shortfall is $11.9 million; Slippery Rock Area School District’s is $7.1 million; Moniteau School District’s is $4.4 million; Karns City Area School District’s is $3.4 million; Seneca Valley School District’s is $1.4 million; and Knoch School District’s is $1 million.
According to Churchill, cuts to the state education budget around 2011, under Gov. Tom Corbett, left school districts with less state funding than in the past, and those dollars were never recovered.
The 2023 decision by Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer was 786 pages. It said Pennsylvania leaders are obligated to provide a system of public education that does not discriminate against students based on the level of income and value of taxable property in their school districts, which is the basis of the case, Churchill said.
“Because of that disproportionate reliance on local funding, districts with low tax bases don't have the resources to provide money that the state is not providing,” Churchill said. “The districts that have the highest need have the least amount of resources per student. They also have the highest tax rates generally in the state. Consequently, the system was not providing fair funding for all school districts.”
Maura McInerney, legal director at the Education Law Center, said after the recommendation that seven years is not an optimal outcome for the adjustment, but the adoption of adequacy targets will help identify the funding needed for each district. Using adequacy targets to determine school state funding rather than districts relying on their local tax bases will lead to better outcomes in K-12 education, McInerney said.
“Adopting these adequacy targets is critical,” McInerney said. “Recognizing that every school needs to have the resources their children demand in order to thrive.”
Kelly’s study took into account the needs of students who need more support, such as students who are learning English and students who receive special education. The resulting “adequacy targets” represent the funding levels necessary for each district to be able to provide the same level of resources as successful districts, relative to the needs of their student body, according to a post by Fund Our Schools PA.
Churchill pointed out that adjusting the annual state budget to accommodate a $6.2 billion gap would be about a 20% increase in overall education spending compared to this year’s state budget. Churchill said no one named in the lawsuit appealed the judge’s decision.
The commission, a bipartisan committee of senators and representatives, voted 8-7 Thursday for its recommendation. The recommendation had other stipulations, including how adequacy should be calculated and addressed, and issues outside the funding formula such as investment in school facilities and examining charter school funding in the state.
The report contains only recommendations and does not require Gov. Josh Shapiro or Pennsylvania's politically divided Legislature to act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
