New state budget includes record-high funding for public education
A new state budget passed through the General Assembly with bipartisan support last week. The budget, which covers the 2021-22 fiscal year, easily passed though both the House and Senate and includes record-high funding for public education.
Gov. Tom Wolf signed the bill into law Wednesday.
The budget provides $13.55 billion in education funding, including a $300 million increase for basic education.
Elected officials from both sides of the aisle touted the budget's education funding as a major win for students and public schools across the state.
Educators' reactionsDr. David McDeavitt, superintendent of Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District, said he appreciates the legislators' support for public education, but small school districts such as his will not reap much benefit from it.“I feel that public education's been underfunded since 2010,” McDeavitt said.Education funding in the state is funneled through the Basic Education Funding Commission, which uses a formula to try to equalize new revenue coming through the budget. McDeavitt said the formula favors districts with growing enrollments and population over small school districts such as his.“There's winners and losers across the state, and A-C Valley's one of the losers,” McDeavitt said. “At this time, I think we'll receive about $50,000, but we're still going to be $1 million underfunded.”Even the modest increase in funding will be put to good use, however. McDeavitt said the additional funds will help pay for a new math coach at the elementary school, additional Chromebooks for students and a replacement HVAC system at the elementary school.Butler School District superintendent Dr. Brian White has similar concerns about how education is funded in the state.“It was a good first step,” White said. “But at some point, I think the state needs to look at how education is funded across the board.”White believes that education funding in Pennsylvania is over-reliant on taxes.“We can raise people's property tax until they can't live here anymore, but that's not going to help us.”Overall, however, White said it is a good thing that the state continues to increase its funding year over year.“Having it increase is important because our salaries go up a little each year, our pensions go up,” White said. “The Basic Education Funding needs to keep up.”
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