Operation Public Education seeks more funding for schools
In a gubernatorial election year when the state’s proposed budget for public schools offers 1 percent more than it did last fiscal year, many are talking about how Pennsylvania covers its obligations to educate its youngest citizens. The suggestions for school funding reform include Operation Public Education.
Based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Operation Public Education calls for the state to put out an additional $2.73 billion to give its public schools the money they need to do their best.
A vocal advocate of school funding reform who has kept a close eye on the various plans for change, Frazier School District Superintendent Dr. Frederick Smeigh said he had not yet heard of Operation Public Education, which was unveiled Thursday in Harrisburg.
“I’ve been collecting them. This would be number eight,” Smeigh said, referring to the funding-reform proposals.
Smeigh said the fact that so many options have surfaced recently shows an interest in changing the way schools get their money, but he said the ideas differ.
“There are two major camps: tax reform and adequacy in funding,” he said. “The adequacy camp has a couple different camps. Some use statistical averages on expenditures. There is nothing to do with what it actually costs to educate a child but just medians. Some look at districts with high achievement and ask what they spend and look at a figure based on their expenditures.”
Operation Public Education lists what is called a “foundation budget” for each individual school district, the amount of money needed “to successfully provide every child in Pennsylvania with a quality education.” Targeted spending includes preschool for at-risk children, small class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, extra instructional time for struggling students, additional professional development for teachers, more technology and instructional materials and full-day kindergarten.
The plan says the state must take much of the responsibility for public school costs through a funding formula meant to reduce reliance on local property taxes. It would be up to the state Legislature to determine the source of the funds.
An accountability measure also is part of Operation Public Education and comes from annual student testing, as well as evaluation of teachers and administrators.
“Voters are demanding that our leaders come up with a plan to improve public schools and lower property taxes,” University of Pennsylvania professor Ted Hershberg, director of Operation Public Education, said in the announcement. “To do that, the state has to provide adequate resources, equitably distributed with far less reliance on local property taxes, and put systems of accountability in place to ensure results. Taken together, adequacy, equity and accountability are three interlocking puzzle pieces. It will take all three to give Pennsylvania’s children the opportunity to achieve at high levels.”
The impact the Operation Public School Foundation Budget would have on local school districts ranges from increases in spending of 2 percent in Jefferson-Morgan School District to 46 percent in Albert Gallatin Area and Connellsville Area school districts.
Operation Public Education is among many approaches lawmakers may examine when considering a reform of the school funding system.
Last Tuesday, state Rep. Nick Colafella (D-Monaca) introduced a bill that would raise the state’s overall share of funding schools’ instructional costs from the current average of 35 percent to 50 percent.
Colafella said such a raise would allow school districts to lower property taxes.
In February, state Rep. Nick Micozzi (R-Delaware County) introduced legislation also meant to lower local property taxes.
Called the “Successful Schools Budget,” the proposal identified a group of successful schools, looked at how much they spend per student and outlined what other schools should spend to achieve similar success. The state would have a bigger share in funding the schools, getting the extra money from the personal income tax.
Tim Potts – director of the Pennsylvania School Reform Network (PSRN) in Harrisburg, which helped out with the Micozzi proposal – said Operation Public Education is similar.
“Professor Hershberg has added important information to the discussion about reforming Pennsylvania’s system for funding public education. The ‘Foundation Budget’ supports and expands upon Rep. Nick Micozzi’s Successful Schools Budget proposal in two ways,” Potts said in a prepared statement.
“First, the Foundation Budget confirms, through a different and independent method, that Pennsylvania must invest substantially more in public schools if every child is to have the opportunity for a quality education.
“Second, where the Successful Schools Budget proposal speaks to the amount schools need and how to distribute the money fairly, the Foundation Budget proposal details how schools should use those funds to raise student achievement.”
The Operation Public Education Web site is www.operationpubliced.org
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