School funding fiasco results in tax hikes
With just over three weeks left to the start of a new fiscal year, the sorry state of school funding has spread like a virus across the commonwealth.
Local districts are working to finalize their 2016-17 budgets caught behind the mess of a nine-month impasse in the state budget, and it’s been tough going for most.
In fact, districts like Pottstown and Pottsgrove which have proposed zero-tax hikes are scarce. Instead, a statewide survey last week revealed that 85 percent of districts plan to increase property taxes this year, with 30 percent planning to raise taxes above the Act 1 index.
That percentage plays out in Chester County, where 11 of 12 districts are raising taxes. Only Downingtown is holding the line at 0 percent.
A statewide report released last week by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials and the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators describes the dismal picture.
According to the report, titled “Continued Cuts: Losing Confidence, Losing Learning,” education funding shortfalls have resulted in 50 percent of all districts reducing or eliminating academic and extracurricular programs, while 56 percent of high poverty districts are cutting or reducing programs and 46 percent planning to reduce staff.
The report cites six districts in Pennsylvania as case studies in funding issues. Southeast Delco is the example cited of poverty amid riches.
“As a majority minority district with a high poverty rate, a growing immigrant population, and a local tax base that generates less revenue than their neighbors despite one of the highest tax rates in the state, SE Delco has already taken extraordinary measures to make ends meet,” the report states. “Since 2010, student enrollment has increased by nearly 500 students, but the district has cut 22 teachers. It has also cut benefits and implemented a salary freeze for all staff — twice for teachers. There have been cuts to music, art, physical education, and other electives.”
In 2015-2016, securing a loan to get through the budget gridlock was not even an option. SE Delco’s Business Manager Vanessa Scott is quoted in the report: “We were weeks from not making payroll, and our bank said, ‘ We’d love to help you, but we don’t see any way you can guarantee that we will get repaid’.’’
The impasse in this year’s budget forced 48 school districts to “borrow a whopping $746 million to keep their schools open while more than 140 districts reduced, delayed or renegotiated payments to vendors,” according to the report. And if a new budget is not approved by June 30, many of those districts will be forced to borrow again, this time with lower credit ratings and higher interest.
The combination of lost and stagnant state contributions with rising costs from unfunded mandates is crippling local districts. And while the recent passage of a state fair funding formula appears to address the inequities among districts, it doesn’t make up for the existing shortfalls.
In Reading School District, for example, school Superintendent Khalid Mumin says it will take the district 30 years to catch up unless more money is pumped into the schools. “That window is just too long for our kids,” he said.
Indeed, it is the children whose future is being put on hold.
The ravenous “tapeworm” of state pension obligations will keep eating away at local school budgets until it is addressed with long overdue reforms. And no matter how fair the funding, without more money from the state, shortfalls remain.
Our schools cannot sustain the results of state lawmakers’ ineptitude, and as citizens, we should not tolerate it.
The political reality is that the governor wants more money for schools and the legislators are entrenched against tax increases in an election year. They need to cross that divide and find a way, especially in this election year. As citizens, we should demand our governor and legislators get a budget adopted on time that addresses the issues of underfunding. It’s time to restore confidence, restore learning.