There’s something that’s familiar about Pennsylvania’s newest budget, a $50.8 billion spending plan that arrived fashionably late.

We’ve heard it all before — these claims of fiscal responsibility and the promise of investment in our schools.

But especially for local taxpayers, there are still a few questions.

Does the newest budget really help local school districts?

Or did it just kick the can down the road?

The budget includes $19.38 billion to fund education. That money will go to school districts, community colleges, libraries and other education programs.

Overall, it’s about a 5% increase in education spending, around $932 million over last year’s allocation.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley calls the plan signed Sunday evening by Gov. Josh Shapiro “the best deal we were going to get.”

All things considered, maybe he’s right.

When compared to Shapiro’s original budget proposal, some $2.5 billion in spending was slashed.

There’s a little support for career and technical education and there’s even backing for programs like the Educational Improvement Tax Credit and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit, both important alternatives for families seeking flexibility.

The EITC gives parents who meet requirements a lower tax bill, while the OSTC helps kids attend a different school if their assigned local school isn’t doing as well.

And when it comes to districts that are struggling, the budget tells a different story.

Panther Valley and Tamaqua Area are seeing significant gains of more than 10% — $2.2 million and $1.6 million, respectively.

Those gains help the districts, which have struggled for a long time.

In Lehighton, the 6% funding increase and Palmerton’s 4.1% raise might be considered respectable, but in Jim Thorpe and Weatherly, at a meager 2.1% and 3.2%, they can barely keep pace with inflation.

The numbers — whatever they are and wherever they landed — matter.

Across the state, a 2% increase in a place with high costs doesn’t help expand programs or reduce class sizes, it just lets districts tread water.

At the same time, other places that get larger increases may get some room to work on deferred maintenance projects, staffing shortages or improvements to curriculum.

The way school funding is doled out, the process emphasizes a larger issue: the way our state is reactive rather than strategic when it comes to education.

The budget throws money at the problem but doesn’t help fix the inequities of paying for our students’ education.

And where’s the extra money coming from?

The folks in Harrisburg focused on onetime sources, with some calling it “found money” akin to what people might find under a couch cushion at home.

That cash, totaling around $4.5 billion, is combined with some delayed payments that put off paying for other things until sometime down the road.

In a sense, it’s a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scenario.

Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a former Parkland school director, cautioned that the move might balance this year’s books, but won’t help in the long term.

Adding to the concerns, there are no new sources for revenue. Hot topics like taxes on skill games and legalizing recreational marijuana are still just that — topics. The gap between spending that’s offset by a consistent source of funding will only be back again next year.

To be fair, there’s a sense of cooperation on the budget in these times of divided government.

Shapiro has contended the budget moves forward on schools, public safety and growing the economy.

At the same time, it staves off steep tax increases, keeping some sense of affordability for taxpayers.

But there’s still a way to go.

The compromise Shapiro signed on Sunday doesn’t really solve the larger problem.

The modest increases it offers to our local schools help keep the doors open, but there’s no indication of hope for changing the way those local schools are funded in the future.

Sure, there’s a sense of stability in the short term, but in the long term that sense doesn’t exist.

That will continue until lawmakers level spending with long term ways to pay for it. Otherwise, the cycle continues.

If this is the best budget we can get, it’s certainly nothing more than a placeholder — a way for schools to tread water while the bickering of how to pay for them goes on.

There’s no evidence of any hard choices on school funding. Instead, they’ve been deferred.

And the can gets kicked a little farther down the road.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.