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Health & Fitness

Education Funding - Too Little, Too Late

Last week I wrote about the overall 2013-14 budget.  I highlighted some of the reasons why I voted against the spending plan with a major reason being the lack of adequate funding for basic education.  Students, teachers, parents and school administrators should not have to hold their breath every June in anticipation of how many more jobs will be cut or how many programs that will not be funded for the upcoming school year.  School districts have already had to re-evaluate how to make the most of their funding through larger class sizes, laying off teachers and staff, no longer offering extracurricular activities and skimping on materials for teaching and learning.  Schools have no more fat to trim but this Administration seems to want to drive all public schools out of business. 

Too many programs have either been flat-level funded or received only a slight increase in funding even though schools are working with less staff, greater class sizes and fewer materials.  Although a $122.5 million increase seems like a significant increase for the Basic Education Subsidy, Governor Corbett cut over $1 billion for this line item when he took office over two years ago.  To put it into perspective, the Accountability Block Grant, which provides support for pre-kindergarten, class size reduction, and tutoring received an allocation of $254 million during the 2010-11 school year.  Pennsylvania is nowhere close to where it once was in funding for education needs. 

Last year, the 2012-13 budget provided $49 million in special aid to 16 school districts, considered financially distressed or receiving loans for financial recovery.  Earlier this year, the Senate Democrats offered our budget proposal that would have continued to grant additional funding to these schools that are in dire need.  Our plan would have distributed $39 million to 33 distressed districts across the state.  Unfortunately, the 2013-14 budget falls short and only grants $30 million in special aid to 21 school districts arbitrarily labeled as “distressed” or “stressed” where once again Pennsylvania turns its back on those who need assistance the most.   Several districts that were a part of that distribution last year, were cut out in the new budget.      

In my view, the spending plan for education funding is unacceptable and we cannot continue to ignore the plight of distressed schools.  If this Administration believes Pennsylvania only needs to level fund essential programs, more and more schools across the state will start to join the ranks of being a distressed school.  We cannot continue to blame teachers and underprivileged students for lackluster academics when the funding policies that have been put in place have left schools with no other options.  Schools have completely emptied their reserve funds and are left only to rely on the shrinking local tax and property bases.  Governor Corbett is setting students and schools up for failure with his lack of adequate funding.  

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