Some districts wary of proposals changing school funding system

Mr. Freeman concurred, saying districts with any kind of debt would still have to collect property taxes to fund that debt. “This is just a money grab by the state,” he said. “I really do think this is a way to break the teachers’ union too. If they can break the districts, they can break the teachers’ union. I believe that with all my heart.”

At a meeting in Peters that included school and township officials on Monday, school board member Lisa Anderson said a fund would be created in the state government with the increased sales and income taxes and then be redistributed to districts. She said funding would be determined by looking at a district’s previous year’s tax collection, less debt service.

“There’s a lot of issues with it,” Ms. Anderson said. “That fund is not guaranteed to increase.”

The way it works now is that school districts have the ability to raise taxes to help offset rising expenses.

Ms. Anderson said if the act passes the district would not see any additional from all of the new commercial and residential developments in the township.

“Also, what if there’s a recession and personal income and sales tax goes down?” Ms. Anderson said.

“Right now, funding of schools in Pennsylvania is jointly between residents and businesses,” added township manager Paul Lauer. If the act passes, he said, “As individuals we will take on the entire burden of funding schools.”