Local public school districts are championing Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2022-23 education funding commitment as part of his proposed 2022-23 state budget.

One administrator said the historic increase in basic and special subsidies, coupled with a change in how charter schools are funded, would “structurally change” how his district could operate on a day-to-day basis.

“It’s long overdue,” said Jesse Walck, Panther Valley School District business manager.

Under the proposal, Panther Valley would see its basic education subsidy increase 38.46% from $9.74 million to $13.49 million, including $1.02 million in “Level Up” funding.

The program is proposed to funnel $300 million to the state’s 100 most underfunded districts, supplementing what they receive in basic education funds. Tamaqua Area School District is the only other area school district in line to receive Level Up funding. Tamaqua would get $557,097 as part of a 25.03% basic education subsidy increase from $7.74 million to $9.68 million.

“We are understaffed due to reductions over the last 10 years, but right now we’re looking somewhere between a $1.5 million and $1.7 million structural deficit,” Walck said of Panther’s Valley budget. “This kind of increase would allow us to pay our bills indefinitely. We would be able to retain our staff better. We’re understaffed at almost every position. It would allow us to actually meet the needs of the students and the taxpayers for that matter.”

Wolf’s proposal includes an additional $ 1.25 billion, or 24% more money than last year, for basic education and $200 million, a 16% increase, for special education for school districts throughout the state.

“We can afford to invest a whole lot more in the Fair Funding Formula without raising one penny in state taxes, and we can afford to do it without asking any school district, anywhere in Pennsylvania, to sacrifice one penny in state funding,” said Gov. Wolf in a statement. “Last year, we made a historic investment in our schools. This year, we have an opportunity to build on that momentum and make a generational difference for students all across the commonwealth.”

Of the remaining area districts, Jim Thorpe would see a 41.3% basic education subsidy increase from $3.88 million to $5.49 million, Lehighton’s subsidy would increase 19.75% from $9.64 million to $11.54 million, Palmerton’s subsidy would increase 11.62% from $6.82 million to $7.61 million, Weatherly’s subsidy would increase 15.86% from $3.33 million to $3.86 million, Northern Lehigh’s subsidy would increase 10.61% from $7.24 million to $8.01 million and Pleasant Valley’s subsidy would increase 9.42% from $23.05 million to $25.22 million.

Jim Thorpe, according to Superintendent John Rushefski, operates at about a $3 million deficit. It has worked to reduce costs, he added, such as collecting $1.25 million from the Youth Services Agency in reimbursement due for the education of students who were sent to the facility from other school districts, and holding off on personnel decisions such as hiring paraprofessionals.

“The reality here is we still have a $3 million deficit,” Rushefski said. “This basic education subsidy increase would go a long way. We haven’t raised taxes since 2013 and we still have a nice fund balance, but at the same time it’s eroding. If the governor’s budget is approved with a $1.6 million basic education subsidy increase and another $1 million coming our way from say, the cyber tuition locked in at $9,800, we’re getting to a point where we’re going to have a structurally balanced budget.”

Capping cyber costs

Wolf’s budget also sets tuition at cybercharter schools at $9,800 per student, which he said would save districts a combined $199 million. Currently each district pays a different tuition amount per student based on a formula using a school’s average daily membership.

Reimbursements for special education students at charter schools would also, according to Wolf, conform more closely to their actual needs and the cost of educating them. That change, he said, would save districts $174 million.

“I feel this proposal is a more fair calculation of the actual expenses that the cybercharter schools are incurring to educate the students,” Walck said. “What we get charged, especially for special education students right now is completely out of hand and is not based in any realistic calculation. What they currently use to calculate that is based on a district only having 16% of their students as special education students. We are well above that. So it skews the cost structure of the entire thing.”

Like almost all districts, Jim Thorpe saw a lot of students choose the cyber/charter route during the COVID-19 pandemic. The district saw a $2 million increase in cyber/charter tuition payments from 2020 to 2021.

“We had a campaign for students to come back to the brick-and-mortar school and we did see a reduction of close to $1 million by doing that, but if that $9,800 locked-in tuition number passes, that would save the district another $1 million,” Rushefski said. “It’s extremely significant.”

The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools released a statement in opposition to Wolf’s proposal, calling cuts to any schools in the midst of a pandemic “unacceptable.”

“The governor’s biggest target is the public charter school community, a collection that is disproportionately made up of children from communities struggling with poverty and students-of-color that have been underserved scholastically for decades,” the coalition said in its statement. “When Gov. Wolf champions cuts to charter schools in Pennsylvania, he plans to hurt a school community that, when combined, make up the second-largest school district in the commonwealth, a grouping that makes up a higher percentage of students with disabilities than district public schools.”

Reaction

Legislators have chimed in on Wolf’s budget proposal, with local Republicans calling the $43.7 billion spending plan unsustainable.

“The governor reiterated many of the same old tax-and-spend policies of the last seven years that have been so unpopular with most Pennsylvanians,” state Rep. Doyle Heffley said. “That said, one of the governor’s proposals I did like was the Level Up education initiative which would make extra money available to school districts that have been historically underfunded. House Republicans are now going to take a realistic look at what revenues are available and what we can spend to adequately fund our schools, public safety and infrastructure repairs.”

State Sen. Dave Argall said Wolf’s budget proposal would leave Pennsylvanians with a multibillion dollar deficit after he leaves office.

“There is some good in this budget, but there is a lot of bad and I think you’ll see major changes over the next few months,” Argall said.

State Sen. John Yudichak, an Independent, said while he agrees with Wolf that more funding must be invested in schools and in front-line health care workers, these budget priorities are “hijacked by a progressive agenda that will swell the state’s budget deficit to a $1.3 billion deficit, which amounts to nothing more than a delayed tax increase on Pennsylvania taxpayers.”