School board members across Pa. call for fair school funding
We are school board members from across the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Our school districts range from small to large, rural to urban, well resourced to underfunded. Despite our varied contexts, we each earnestly believe that full and fair funding for education is a prudent and fruitful investment in our Commonwealth and that the State Legislature should lead the way in ensuring that every student in the state has the educational resources they need and deserve.
In our roles as both school directors and, for some of us, as parents, we have each been able to observe the effect that educational investment has on the day-to-day realities of our students. We see, repeatedly, that access to educational resources makes the difference in whether students can flourish or whether their potential goes unrealized.
For example, those of us in better-funded districts see that our students benefit from access to a wide range of Advanced Placement courses. This results in a head start on postsecondary credits and increased college preparedness. However, some of us see the opposite for our students — a pittance of available AP courses due to a lack of resources supporting those programs. Students without those courses are missing out on a critical opportunity due to conditions well outside their control.
As we talk about the conditions in our various districts, the wide-ranging effects of under-investing in schools become clear. We observe that while some students have ready access to school counselors, others have to share overstretched counselors with 500 or more students. We’ve seen students thrive with an array of programming, yet we also see the demoralizing effects of severe cuts to already modestly funded art, music, and foreign language programs. We observe that students in well-funded districts enjoy the blessing of safe and suitable facilities, the latest technology, and upto-date curricular materials. In contrast, students in poorly-funded districts make do with toxic and unsafe buildings and inadequate supplies.
Given all of our experience on the ground in our districts, it is unsurprising that years of research back up the economic and social value of high-quality education. For example, studies confirm that consistent investment in education results in increased graduation rates and college enrollment. These improved outcomes lead to higher-paying jobs, greater economic stability, and less reliance on government assistance for graduating students. They also encourage economic growth and tax revenue for our local communities and the Commonwealth.
Improvements in outcomes like these are particularly notable for students from low-income families, who count on our public schools to provide access to opportunities and upward mobility and help break cycles of generational poverty. In this way, high-quality education is essential and foundational to the very concept of the American Dream.
We find that the individual and the statewide benefits of investing in full and fair funding for public schools and all children across the Commonwealth are indisputable. We call on the Pennsylvania Legislature to exercise wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars in the 2022-2023 budget by investing to ensure a highquality education for every student.
Laura Johnson, Pottstown
School District
Lisa Hogan, Boyertown Area School District
Hillary Fletcher, Rose Tree Media School District