PA Legislators are Failing our Schools

A large number of Montgomery County school districts had contested Primary Election races this past Tuesday to determine who would move forward to the General Election and possibly become future School Directors. In the meantime, current school boards and superintendents around Pennsylvania have been struggling to come up with budgets that will meet the needs of their students and community residents alike.

Many districts find themselves handcuffed: how do they prepare a balanced budget that will meet the ever increasing needs of the students despite not only staggeringly insufficient state support but also an increasing number of mandated obligations like charter school payments, pensions, and special education, as well as increased security demands in the wake of far too many school tragedies.

With no other recourse, many districts look to hike property taxes on residents to fill the deficit as commercial properties appeal their own assessments or, worse, seek exemptions, leaving revenues tied up for years in legal limbo. The PA School Boards Association reports that 75% of school districts intend to raise taxes this year. Some will be cutting what students receive in an attempt to eliminate or reduce those tax increases. As many as one-third are increasing class sizes, something that is contrary to research, especially at the younger grades. And, about a quarter report they are cutting programs or services for students.

While, admittedly, there has been some state education spending increases over the past four years, Pennsylvania is still not paying its fair share, as it only funds about 37% of the education costs of its students and ranked 46th in 2017 across the nation in terms of education funding. The majority of education funding is left to the property taxpayers.

The trend has shown a sobering rise in special education costs for children with special needs which the state has historically failed to keep up with. According to the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, in a nine-year period school district spending for special education increased by $1.5 billion. The state; however, increased its funding by only $72 million over that same period, a deficit of over $1.4 billion that was left to local taxpayers to fund.

Thankfully, in Harrisburg, the governor has proposed increasing funding for basic, special and career and technical education by a total of $260 million for the upcoming year. Other proposed legislation provides for relief from the excessive burden of online charter school funding, though it is doubtful that this will make its way to the governor’s desk for signature.

Unfortunately, there are also bills like HB800 which public school advocates believe will divert more money away from districts by providing tax credits via the PA EITC to corporations and special purpose entities who make contributions directly to private school scholarships and programs.

It is far past time for residents to demand that all state legislators immediately commit to pass the governor’s proposed funding. School boards should be leading this charge, educating the residents on the issue and publicly calling out legislators who are not voting accordingly. It is time for our elected officials to start worrying less about disappointing their party leadership and more about ensuring critical funds are delivered to our children’s educations.

This increase is critical, but it will not fix the fundamental issue. Residents are on a cycle of ever increasing property taxes and legislators continue to kick the ball down the road. It is not enough to say that they are for increased education funding, all Pennsylvania lawmakers must commit to begin working on a permanent solution to the state's broken education funding system, charter school funding reform and reducing, not increasing, the EITC. Anything less will perpetuate the current trends and more districts will find themselves underwater as they are unable to meet the needs of their students.