Experts discuss school funding
Banking on the state Legislature to pass a new education funding formula this spring, Good Schools Pennsylvania convened national experts for a media briefing Tuesday to discuss how other states’ experience relates to what Pennsylvania is facing today. Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed in the 2008-09 education budget a six-year, funding phase-in to annually increase a school district’s basic education subsidy to reach amounts identified in a costing-out study produced in November.
The Legislature is expected to enact a similar proposal. Under the current proposal, area school districts are expected to receive a larger share of state funding than distributed in previous years.
Janis Risch, director of Good Schools Pennsylvania, a grassroots organization advocating school funding reform, said she is “very optimistic” that a new funding formula will be approved.
“I don’t think we can go backwards from here,” said Risch. “Our continuing opportunity and challenge is to build champions among the Legislature so this is an opportunity among everyone.”
Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said the state’s proposal will not provide 100 percent of funding to reach a district’s adequacy target.
Harris said the state Department of Education seeks to partner with school districts to ensure “efficient spending” to reach their targeted per student spending.
Basing increases on a district’s actual enrollment, its number of low-income students and English language-learners and its size and regional cost differences will result in more equitable school funding, said Risch.
“How much does it translate into?” asked Risch. “The challenge is to look at it in its entirety, instead of just one data point. This year it will be put into perspective with five other data points.”
What initiated funding reforms in Pennsylvania is similar to experiences in New York, Maryland and other states, according to Good Schools Pennsylvania.
Michael Rebell, the “main architect of funding reform in New York,” said Pennsylvania is showing it is “serious” about having all students meet academic standards and “that’s going to cost something.”
Rebell, co-founder of The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won a major constitutional ruling on behalf of New York City public schools, said litigation prompted education funding reform in other states.
In Pennsylvania, a 1990 lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools challenging the constitutionality of the existing state school funding formula was unsuccessful at having the formula overturned, but helped catapult the state Legislature, which commissioned the costing-out study, into action, said Rebell.
“Once litigation was brought in Pennsylvania, though the plaintiffs didn’t win, it put (the issue) on top of the political agenda,” said Rebell. “A lot of information about inequities (in education funding) were distributed and Good Schools PA then formed. …I don’t think Pennsylvania is in a much different stance than we were in New York 10 years ago.”
Rebell said schools in some states that phased-in additional money have made significant academic gains.
Massachusetts, which had a costing-out study complete in 1993-94 and saw new amounts phased in by 2001, is now ahead of the pack as far as academic gains and has seen dramatic improvement in its minority population’s academic progress, he said.
Regarding Maryland’s education funding reform, Dr. Alvin Thornton of Howard University, former chairman of Maryland’s Commission on Education, Finance, Equity and Excellence, said, “Money has been spent in particular ways and has produced the kind of results they were hoping for.”
Thornton said Maryland had a study done by MGT of America of Tallahassee, Fla., and have since seen improvement.
In Maryland, Rebell said, a lot of people were skeptical about whether the funding commitment could be carried out over six years because there was not a dedicated funding stream for it. No income tax or state sales tax were increased, he said.
“Many people thought it would break down, but it didn’t,” said Rebell. “They still have managed to not raise any major taxes.”
Rebell said carrying out the funding over six years is critical.
“You’re giving school districts stability and predictability. All experts say it’s the key thing to make education reform work,” said Rebell.
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