The Community Connection

POTTSTOWN SHORT-CHANGED

Underfundi­ng of local schools has cost taxpayers $67M

- By Evan Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymed­ia.com @PottstownN­ews on Twitter

POTTSTOWN » Students and taxpayers in the borough have been shortchang­ed by more than $67 million of state school funding in the past six years since a “fair funding formula” was enacted.

“The inequity builds up over the years,” according to researcher David Mosenkis.

Also building up over the years are the racial inequities inherent in that funding. Put simply, whiter-wealthier districts get more than their “fair share” of funding per-student than poorer-less-white districts such as Pottstown and Norristown, Mosenkis has found.

Mosenkis is a data researcher for the faith-based advocacy group POWER Interfaith and provided the first of six ongoing online seminars on Pennsylvan­ia’s unfair education funding system being hosted in Pottstown.

Organized by Myra Forrest, a retired Pottstown Schools administra­tor who is now the education advocate for the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation, the free programs are sponsored by a coalition of local churches and hosted by First Baptist Church of Pottstown.

The first three presentati­ons are available on the church website — www.fbcpottsto­wn.org — and the fourth will streamed live there at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 14.

Back in the 1970s, Pennsylvan­ia was like other states and provided about 50 percent of districts’ funding, Mosenkis said. But that commitment has eroded and now only about 35 percent of school funding comes out of Harrisburg.

Local property taxpayers now shoulder about 60 percent of the burden for funding their local schools and that means “wealthier districts with higher property values will find it easier to raise money for education,” said Mosenkis.

In contrast, “poorer districts with lower property values, even if they tax themselves at a higher rate, are not going to be able to come up as much funding,” he said.

Because poorer districts tend to have higher population­s of minority students, that also means “a really stark pattern of racial discrimina­tion has developed,” said Mosenkis. “This is quite disturbing.”

By way of example, Mosenkis provided a comparison between Pottstown and the western Pennsylvan­ia district of Penn-Trafford, both of which educate between 3,000 and just under 4,000 students.

Pottstown is 34 percent white and Penn-Trafford is 95 percent white. And while the median household income in Pottstown is a little over $45,000, the median income in its western counterpar­t is just over $74,000.

In 2016, a bi-partisan majority of the General Assembly adopted a “fair funding formula” aimed at addressing inequities in how it funds public schools. It adjusts funding for student population, district poverty, taxing capacity, the number of English-language learners and other factors.

Applying the state’s fair funding formula to each district’s state funding shows that each Pottstown students gets nearly $4,000 less than his or her fair share under the formula, while each PennTraffo­rd students get nearly $2,400 more than their fair share, Mosenkis said.

Because only 11 percent of Pennsylvan­ia’s education funding is distribute­d through its fair funding formula, adopted by a bi-partisan majority of the General Assembly in 2016, “the racial inequity in school funding is actually growing worse instead of growing better,” he explained.

“The gap between what they’re getting and what their needs are is growing each year,” said Mosenkis.

One way political leaders in Harrisburg justify inaction to correct this inequity, said Mosenkis, is to argue that 354 of Pennsylvan­ia’s 500 school districts benefit from the status quo, while 146 are shortchang­ed.

“But those 146 districts account for a big majority of Pennsylvan­ia’s students,” Mosenkis said. That’s because most of the districts that are short-changed — “like Pottstown and reading and Philadelph­ia and York” — are larger and/or poorer and have larger minority population­s.

As a result many of those districts getting more than they would if the formula were used for all funding, “are getting way too much and could easily afford to lose some. They have been able to take it easy on their property taxes because they get such generous funding from the state.”

Other “over-funded” districts, however, are struggling.

“Even though they are getting more than their fair share of funding from the state, they are getting more than their share of a pie that’s too small,” said Mosenkis.

Many of these inequities are addressed in Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal, said Mosenkis, who supports the plan despite what he sees as its shortcomin­gs.

For Pottstown Schools, it would mean a permanent infusion of an additional $13 million in state funding because Wolf has called for all existing education funding to be distribute­d according to the formula.

“It would be a big deal for Pottstown and all the other districts across the state that have been shortchang­ed for all these years,” Mosenkis said.

Wolf’s budget also calls for additional funding to ensure that those districts that have been “overfunded” over the years do not suddenly have large holes in their budgets. It’s a policy Mosenkis wryly calls the “historic privilege retention supplement.”

Although seen as being a politicall­y necessity, that provision would “overwhelmi­ngly go to the whitest districts” and so “it’s important to recognize it doesn’t completely eliminate the systemic racial disparitie­s.”

Neverthele­ss, he said, those pushing for fair funding should embrace and advocate for the budget because it still makes things better and it’s what’s possible.

Mosenkis urged voters in both under-funded and over-funded districts to contact their legislator­s in support of the budget proposal in order to make school funding fairer if for no other reason than because it is the moral thing to do.

 ?? IMAGE FROM SCREENSHOT ?? David Mosenkis
IMAGE FROM SCREENSHOT David Mosenkis
 ??  ?? With the fair funding formula only governing 11 percent of Pennsylvan­ia’s education funding, districts with a higher population of non-white students, shown in brown, receive less their their fair share, represente­d by the diagonal line. Whiter-wealthier districts get more than their share.
With the fair funding formula only governing 11 percent of Pennsylvan­ia’s education funding, districts with a higher population of non-white students, shown in brown, receive less their their fair share, represente­d by the diagonal line. Whiter-wealthier districts get more than their share.
 ?? IMAGES COURTESY OF DAVID MOSENKIS ?? Despite the enactment of a “fair funding formula,” Pottstown continues to be underfunde­d by Harrisburg and that “inequity builds up over the years,” according to David Mosenkis.
IMAGES COURTESY OF DAVID MOSENKIS Despite the enactment of a “fair funding formula,” Pottstown continues to be underfunde­d by Harrisburg and that “inequity builds up over the years,” according to David Mosenkis.
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