Pennsylvania School Funding Bill Takes Effect

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Legislation that directs the distribution of an additional $200 million to Pennsylvania’s public school districts — and authorizes up to $2.5 billion in borrowing for the state’s share of school construction costs — took effect Monday, reported the Associated Press.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf originally sought $400 million in additional school funding (a 7 percent increase to $6.1 billion), but Republican lawmakers approved only half of the request to avoid tax increases.

“Over the past several days, I have worked with Republicans and Democrats in the legislature to finalize the 2015-2016 budget,” Gov. Wolf said in a statement. “I will let the fiscal code become law without my signature, and I look forward to working with the legislature in the coming weeks to address our challenges and meet the needs of distressed school districts so that they will remain solvent. As we enter 2016-2017, I look forward to coming together to reach a long-term solution to fix our deficit and to fund education at all levels. I remain adamant that we must take additional steps to restore the cuts from the previous administration.”

The fiscal code legislation dictates how the funding will be distributed according to a formula developed by a bipartisan commission, even though Gov. Wolf wanted to distribute the money differently in order to restore previous cuts, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Budget cuts enacted in 2011 under Gov. Tom Corbett cut roughly $860 million from public schools, most of it from the state’s poorest districts, reported the Associated Press. This created a distinct gap in per-student funding — the largest such discrepancy in the nation — between the state’s wealthiest and poorest districts. As part of the distribution formula, no school district will get less under the formula, even districts that get outsized contributions from the state compared to their relative wealth, according to the Associated Press.

The enactment of this latest legislation brings the 2015-2016 budget to a close, according to representatives of both the House and Senate Republican majority leaders. The bill passed the Senate in a 37-11 vote, while the House passed it, 149-45.

“We still have a long way to go to restore the cuts to education at all levels, Pre-K through higher education,” Gov. Wolf said in a statement. “I am eager to get to work immediately with Republican and Democratic leaders to discuss a responsible 2016-2017 budget that is balanced, fixes the deficit, continues to make important investments in education and prevents Pennsylvania from going over a fiscal cliff that will have serious implications for our long-term future.”

The $2.5 billion in borrowing for the state share of school construction costs is also long overdue, as districts complained that they had been waiting for years to be reimbursed by the state’s backlogged school construction bureaucracy, according to the Associated Press.