Fair funding marathon is an uphill climb

“Fairness” and “school funding” are words that don’t go together in Pennsylvania. The commonwealth in fact has the widest funding gap between wealthy and poor school districts in the nation. The state’s wealthiest school districts spend 33 percent more on each student than its poorest districts, according to The Campaign for Fair Education Funding, an advocacy coalition that has been fighting for a fair funding formula.

The result is an opportunity deficit for many of Pennsylvania’s children and an increasingly difficult burden on taxpayers.

State lawmakers and governors including Gov. Tom Wolf have taken actions to address this gap, adopting more than once Fair Funding Formulas touted as the solution for struggling districts. But the Legislature has repeatedly failed to put money where their mouths are and allocate funding to those formulas.

The most recent fair funding solution was adopted two years ago. But the amount of money Harrisburg provided through that formula has been meager. In fact, according to information presented at a recent fair education rally in Pottstown, of the $5.5 billion in school funding in Gov. Wolf’s proposed budget, only $5.4 million would be distributed through the formula — less than 10 percent of the total education budget. Calculations put out recently by the advocacy group “Equity First” show that were that formula in place today, the Pottstown district would be receiving $13.5 million more in state aid that it does currently. Pottstown in Montgomery County is just one district struggling to balance a budget in a community where property values are low resulting in revenue shortfalls. Coatesville schools in Chester County are facing an 8.4 percent tax hike. In Delaware County, the William Penn School District with the Education Law Center has sued the Department of Education and state lawmakers to force action on fair funding. Meanwhile, a package of legislation in both the state House and state Senate aims to fund the formula that would help close the gap.

Reps. Tom Quigley, R-146, and Tim Hennessey, R-26, have jointly introduced legislation that would ramp up the delivery of state aid through the fair funding formula by 20 percent each year, reaching full implementation in five years.

Sen. Robert Mensch, R-24, has introduced an identical bill in the state Senate. And, according to Quigley, Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151, and Rep. Martina White, R-170, have introduced a bill calling for the entire state education funding allocation to be distributed through the fair funding formula immediately.

The bills have several hurdles to overcome before even getting to a vote.

One of the largest hurdles is “hold harmless,” a state policy that guarantees no district will receive less money that it did the previous year, even if it has fewer students. Hold harmless limits the share of state money available to districts with increased student populations, exacerbating the underfunding of those districts.

The catch: Many of the districts which would lose money if hold harmless was eliminated are represented by Harrisburg’s most powerful politicians. “Every single district in Indiana County would lose money” if the fair funding formula were in place today, according to Quigley, who sits on the state House Education Committee. Indiana County is the home of House Majority Leader Dave Reed, who controls which bills come before the House.

The road to fairness in school funding in Pennsylvania has been a marathon, lasting more than a decade, denying children opportunities and creating an unfair tax burden for property owners.

Newspapers have railed; people have rallied; districts have spoken out, and in the case of Delaware County’s William Penn district, have taken the state to court in an effort to force action on fair funding.

The legislators who represent this region have taken up the cause, and we are encouraged by the proposals being put forth.

The people of Pennsylvania must make it clear to the legislative leadership that the state of Pennsylvania’s education funding is a national embarrassment and a violation of the constitution mandating a “thorough and efficient system of public education” for all children of the commonwealth.

This is not just an issue for the towns of our region. Pennsylvania’s children, which represent the workforce and industry leaders of tomorrow, need an equal opportunity education.

This is a race we cannot afford to lose.