Issues

State Funding for Education

Budget Update as of June 26, 2011

Budget negotiators are set on a final budget number of $27.149 billion, less than the $27.3 originally offered.  As passed by the House, the budget bill (HB 1485) directed an additional $243 million to public schools, with the total net funding increase at about $210 million when considering additions and cuts in the proposal. HB 1485 provides an additional $100 million above the governor’s proposal for the Basic Subsidy, an additional $100 million for the Accountability Block Grant program and an additional $43 million for School Employees Social Security.

Latest reports tell us that although the Senate hoped to allocate $100 million to the Accountability Block Grant program on top of what the House added, that is not expected to happen. The ABG program will not get funded above the House level. Discussions on how to fund the grants are continuing, and a deal was reportedly struck that calls for the General Assembly to use $50 million in its reserve funds and the governor would match that amount from the state surplus.

Other indications are that the $25 million for poorer school districts, which could be put into the charter school reimbursement line, would be in the final budget deal.

That means, after the restorations of $265 million in Corbett’s cuts, the framework contains about a $300 million reduction in current-year state funding for public school districts, plus the loss of about $600 million in federal stimulus funds.

Vouchers

Description of the Amendments offered on the floor on June 26 to HB 1454:

Amendment #A04013, filed by Rep. Christiana, institutes a tuition voucher program that provides taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers to low-income students in the bottom 5% of struggling schools.  The program expands dramatically in 2018-19 to provide vouchers to students schools in which 50% or fewer of students attained a combined math and reading score of proficient or above on the most recent assessments.

Amendment #A04103, filed by Rep. Christiana, institutes the expanded tuition voucher program in #A04013 and also vastly expands the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.

Amendment #A04014, filed by Rep. Christiana, institutes a tuition voucher program that provides taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers to low-income students in the bottom 10% of struggling schools and expands the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.

Charter School Expansion
Amendment #A03879, offered by Rep. Killion, would make major changes to the charter school law, but does not include any type of funding reform.  It would create a statewide Commission for Charter Schools and Cyber Charter Schools that would serve as an authorizer of charter schools (not cybers) in all or portions of school districts in the worst 10% of academically performing school districts.  It would allow “transition” schools which may be operated by private educational management service providers to create their own attendance zones with a school district, and it would expand the entities which can legally authorize a charter school to self-selected institutions of higher education in the 10% of school districts statewide that have the lowest academic performance.



Charter School Reform