State formula needs funds to get to fairness

In the long sought effort to level the playing field for school funding, the state Legislature last week passed HB1552 which will make a fair funding formula part of the Pennsylvania School Code.

The action comes after years of school funding advocates having worked to restore the funding formula enacted under the administration of former Gov. Ed Rendell and abandoned after former Gov. Tom Corbett came into office. Eventually Corbett relented and tasked the Legislature with forming a panel to study education funding in the state.

One of the bedrock findings of the Basic Education Funding Commission was a suggestion that the state direly needs a fair funding formula for education.

Pennsylvania is one of only three states nationwide that does not utilize such a plan.

The commission held public hearings across the state and saw first hand the results of the state’s education funding disparities. They learned ZIP code matters, and not just to the post office.

An analysis of the commission’s findings took another key step – determining just how much funding Pennsylvania schools need to properly educate our children. It concluded the state needed an additional $3.2 to $4.3 billion.

The formula takes into account a district’s enrollment as well as factors that make it more costly to educate students, such as poverty level and special education needs. The percentage of students in charter schools and the transportation costs in rural districts are also factored in.

That fair funding formula could go by the boards if it is not inserted into the Pennsylvania School Code. That’s the step HB1552 takes, but the debate now centers on how to make whole the disparities created over years of poorer districts being underfunded.

Digital First Media reported recently on the statewide grass roots effort Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools that has sparked local speakers and school rallies on behalf of funding equity.

The report noted that the same Basic Education Funding Commission report which called for the passage of a funding formula also identified 180 school districts that are underfunded by $937 million every year. Reading School District tops the list as most underfunded with a gap of $95 million every year. Pottstown School District is the 14th most underfunded.

Pennsylvania has 500 school districts, so if 180 are underfunded, the majority of 320 are “overfunded.” And the issue remains how to close that gap.

Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed closing the gap by distributing school funding increases with a “restoration formula” to restore the funding districts lost in 2011 when federal stimulus funding went away. In fact, the Basic Education Funding Commission in its report also recommended restorative funding using the devised formula.

One proposal currently before the Legislature is even more specific: Distribute $100 million of the $400 million in additional education funding to districts through the new fair funding formula and allocate the remaining $300 million to the 180 underfunded districts using the same formula.

This 3-1 ratio would fill that financial hole within five or six years, and every district would still get additional funding each year; it’s just that those in greater need would receive a greater amount.

As the debate continues on making the poorer districts of our region whole again, we applaud the passage of legislation making the fair funding formula law.

Winning this battle advances the fight for school funding equity. Now, the effort requires money to back it up and give children in places like Pottstown, Norristown, and Upper Darby the same educational opportunity as their neighbors.

The commission held public hearings across the state and learned that ZIP code matters, and not just to the post office.