REACH seeks equitable method of reforming school funding
Trimming property taxes, raising money from some other source and giving all of Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts more of a share of the state’s budget pie is one thing. Coming up with a fair way to divide that pie so that all of the school districts are able to spend a similar amount of money on each student is another.
Fay-Penn Economic Development Council’s Reaching Educational Achievement with Community Help (REACH) and Good Schools Pennsylvania sponsored a panel discussion Tuesday morning at Laurel Highlands Junior High School on the issue referred to as adequate and equitable school funding reform.
“Any decision on education funding reform should start with the student first and that is key to anything we expect from education funding reform,” said REACH manager Barb Gibel, who opened the discussion.
“All children deserve that chance for a quality education.”
Panelists said the way the state gives out the annual basic education subsidy will remain unfair as long as poor, rural school districts like those in Fayette County with a deteriorated tax base are able to spend just about $5,000 to educate each student and their wealthy counterparts have an average of nearly three times that much.
They said students in the wealthy school districts perform better on standardized test scores, but everyone should have the same opportunity to do well.
Fay-Penn chairman Leo Krantz served as moderator for the two-hour session. He said the business interest is to insure that all children in Fayette County have a “first-class education” in order to succeed in their adult roles and at the same time provide the existing and potential local business community with a skilled workforce.
Donna Cooper, campaign director for Good Schools Pennsylvania, a non-profit organization aimed at mobilizing concerned citizens for public education reform, was another member of the panel. State Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Dunbar, joined the panel. Rounding out the panel was Tomi Waters Boylstein, president of Pennsylvania PTA.
Cooper said this issue will come up for the Legislature’s consideration when incoming Gov. Ed Rendell takes office in January, explaining Rendell has promised to immediately convene a special session on school funding reform.
She said it is the ultimate responsibility of the state, not the local governments, to fund public education. She gave a number of statistics, pointing out the state’s average contribution to the school districts is about 36 percent and that figure is down from about a 50/50 split in the early 1970s. She said the national average for the states’ share of public education is 49.5 percent.
She said more money is needed for a poor school district to be able to pay for such proven efforts as well-trained teachers and professional development, pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten, adequate and safe facilities, small classes, classroom resources and extra help and time for struggling students.
Krantz said the teacher in-service and classroom resources are sometimes considered luxuries and trimmed by a school board reluctant to raise taxes when they have increasing salaries to consider during preparation of the annual budget. He said a business could not operate that way because the bottom line in business is the quality of the finished product and the business must provide the necessary resources.
Krantz quoted a human capital report by the University of Pittsburgh that 22 percent of job applicants for wholesale-retail lack the skills for the positions and that number increases to 32 percent for financial services, 34 percent for business services and 38 percent for manufacturing.
“Work readiness has everything to do with equitable, adequate, predictable and reliable (school funding),” he said. “Only 20 percent of available workers have the education that 75 percent of employers need – only 20 percent.”
Boylstein said Pennsylvania PTA has long been a supporter of equitable school funding with the belief that every child deserves a quality education.
She talked about what it means for one school district to spend $5,000 per student and another to spend $15,000. Considering a classroom of 25 children, she pointed out the difference is $250,000 a year.
She said the PTA supports the state’s academic standards and testing but equal funding among school districts is needed to make sure all students get the opportunity to score well on the tests.
Kasunic said southwestern Pennsylvania has been shortchanged by the state over the years but the challenge to the Democratic legislators has been the Republican legislators and governor in power who did not want to reform school funding.
He said raising local taxes to make up for inadequate state funding has been a tremendous burden on property owners at a time when the local tax base is eroding, property values are stagnant and new business and industry is not coming to the area.
Kasunic referred often in his comments to another legislator present in the audience, state Rep. Larry Roberts, D-South Union. He said he speaks for the local legislative contingent when he says they are committed to working with Rendell “to make sure we do provide adequate funding and the poor school districts get their share and we raise the bar so our children get the same education as in other parts of the state.” He said the local legislators want to make certain the educators get the tools and funding they need “so our children and grandchildren are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow” and that they work to bring these jobs to the area.
The panel took questions and comments from the audience of about 50 people.
One speaker, George Rattay, business manager for Plumbers & Pipefitters Local Union 354 of Youngwood, commented applicants for the trade unions are lacking math skills in particular and the unions must spend millions of dollars on training.
Krantz said the audience was small but he encouraged everyone there to share the information with others and contact the legislators with the message that they want school funding reform.
“We’ve got to talk it up as much as we can,” he said.