Schools take on fight for fair funding in Pa.

The Pottstown School District in Montgomery County and Southeast Delco in Delaware County are just two examples of the inequity in school funding in Pennsylvania. In an issue that won’t go away, officials, staff and even students in those districts are becoming increasingly frustrated and are working to take action.

Last week, both were sites of organized press conferences to put pressure on state legislators urging that “fair funding” be more than just words.

Pottstown has become in recent years a poster child for differences in school funding between rich and poor districts. With that distinction has come a leadership role, too. The district is at the forefront of action to raise awareness about school funding gaps and remedies needed to address them.

Last week, Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez led a special Superintendent’s Forum focusing on the question — “Why Are My Taxes So High?”

The next morning the school was the Montgomery County location for a series of statewide press conferences calling attention to Pennsylvania’s rank as the worst in the nation for the gap between funding for rich and poor schools. In another of the press conferences, a group gathered at the Southeast Delco Kindergarten Center to turn up the heat on state officials.

“We know public education is under attack and we know we have to fight back,” Pottstown School Board member Ron Williams said at the Pottstown forum.

The timing is critical. Budget season is headed toward its June 30 deadline with school districts submitting plans for spending millions in public dollars and Harrisburg staring down a $3 billion deficit predicted in the state budget.

In the meantime, the use of the year-old Fair Funding Formula for only 6 percent of the Commonwealth’s entire education budget makes an attempt at fairness almost invisible to the 130 school districts identified as being underfunded.

In Pottstown’s case, that under-funding has risen to nearly $14 million out of a $62.5 million proposed budget.

Add to that, the discovery by researchers applying the Fair Funding Formula to all funding that a racial bias exists in Pennsylvania’s methodology shows discrimination against districts with high minority populations.

A coalition of school districts has a lawsuit pending, charging that the state’s education funding system violates a clause of the state Constitution.

“There is no villain, no demon we can go after,” Rodriguez said toward the end of his forum Tuesday night. Instead, he said, the district must look for partners wherever they can be found to advance Pottstown’s cause.

Tim Hennessey, the longtime Chester County-based Republican state representative who represent’s the 26th House District, and the southern portion of Pottstown borough, was the sole member of the legislature present for the tax forum. He agreed with much of what Rodriguez and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg and Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center said about Pennsylvania’s education funding model — particularly as it has become very harmful to the southeast region of the state.

But in Harrisburg, the Southeast has neither the leadership nor sentiment in its favor.

Much of the leadership of both parties “has moved west,” with legislative and caucus leaders representing the two thirds of districts that are “over-funded,” Hennessey said. They are the ones who decide which bills get put up for a vote.

As for increasing the amount of money the state contributes toward education — at 36 percent, one of the lowest levels in the nation — Hennessey said “my phone does not ring off the hook with people asking me to raise their taxes.”

But holding the line on state taxes just leaves the school districts with more reliance on the local property tax, which many districts are raising to avoid cuts in education. Poorer districts have to raise taxes higher to generate enough money for schools, and thus the cycle of unfair funding continues.

Pottstown and Southeast Delco are examples of districts who feel the pain of those discrepancies. And, they’re trying to lead the way to solutions.

There are no easy answers to this dilemma. Dialogue, pressure on legislators and active participation in sending this message are positive and worthwhile steps to take.

Pottstown is tired of being the poster child for what’s wrong with school funding; being the leader toward a solution is a step in the right direction.