Dive Brief:
- School reform activist Ashley DeMauro says Pennsylvania should enact a student-weighted funding formula in order to better distribute funding, instead of looking just for ways to increase overall budgets.
- "Without a funding formula, money is allocated without any recognition of how many students need extra resources and support," DeMauro writes in PennLive.
- New funding formulas that account for the unique needs of students with disabilities, for example, are not served by a flat per-student formula, DeMauro claims, saying research shows weighted student funding formulas give at-risk students 25% higher earnings when they enter the workforce and also result in a 20% drop in the adult poverty rate.
Dive Insight:
Pennsylvania's lawmakers have played an enormous role in creating the state's current funding emergency. DeMauro doesn't detail exactly how partisan politics has contributed to the crisis.
By October 2015, a budget impasse had already cost Pennsylvania school districts over $11.2 million in estimated borrowing fees and interest. After Governor Tom Wolf (D) vetoed one budget proposal in June, the Republican-controlled legislature couldn't reach an agreement on state spending. Many districts were forced to borrow money, and some have struggled to get loans approved. Some faced credit downgrades.
An October 2015 audit released by the state Attorney General uncovered a series of management issues in the state's cash-strapped school system, including not having an up-to-date master plan for education. The following month, the Pennsylvania Senate froze a proposal to replace $14 billion dollars worth of school property taxes with higher state sales and income taxes.