The AFT Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers have joined a broad-based, statewide coalition of education and advocacy groups calling on the governor and legislature to “fundamentally reform Pennsylvania’s outdated and broken school-funding formula.”
AFTPA and PFT Local 3 are on the steering committee of the new group called Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign. AFTPA and PFT Local 3 are urging members to log onto the School Funding Campaign website and sign on as a supporter.
http://www.paschoolfunding.org/take_action_endorse_individual.shtml
At a Harrisburg news conference Jan. 23, members of the campaign stressed that if all students are to meet Pennsylvania’s academic standards, the state must provide the necessary resources as defined by the state Board of Education’s 2007 costing-out study and also revise the way funds are distributed.
A second news conference is scheduled in Philadelphia.
The campaign urged the enactment of a comprehensive school funding formula as part of the 2008-09 state budget and for a significant “down payment” of at least $1 billion toward full implementation over five years of the money needed for all students to become proficient academically by state standards.
The costing-out study found that an average of $12,057 per student per year is needed to ensure that students are provided with the resources needed to meet state standards of achievement. Pennsylvania spends an average only $9,512 per student annually.
Those findings translate to 474 of 501 school districts, with 1.68 million students, spending below levels recommended by the costing-out study.
Because Pennsylvania provides only 36 percent of the cost of public education, compared to a national average of nearly 50 percent, Pennsylvania’s public education funding system depends on local wealth – primary property taxes – and is unequal in terms of resources and opportunities for students.
In Philadelphia, researchers determined it would cost $14,919 per student annually to bring every student to proficiency.
The state would have to allocate an additional $4.61 billion per year to fund all public schools adequately and fairly, the campaign said.
Campaign members pledged to work to ensure that every district has adequate funding to help students meet statewide academic standards, ensure that funds are distributed equitably to reduce dependence on local property taxes and to create a reliable funding formula that allows districts to plan budgets and programs.
“School reforms will not be effective until every school has adequate funding, and that funding is channeled into schools and into classrooms where it is needed,” said PFT president Jerry Jordan.
The campaign plans to lobby the legislature to:
1) Allocate sufficient funds in the 2008-2009 budget to make a significant start toward implementation of a NEW statewide system of public school funding based on the 2007 costing-out study; and
2) Enact legislation in conjunction with the 2008-2009 budget to implement and fully finance by 2013 (including appropriate annual adjustments) a comprehensive, systemic and sustainable education funding plan based on the following five principles:
Adequacy: To ensure that the necessary educational and financial resources as identified by the Costing-Out Study are available in every school district to support every student in meeting statewide academic standards.
Equity: To ensure that state funds are distributed so districts with the least local resources receive the most state support per student to meet the adequacy level. This will allow local districts to reduce over-reliance on local property taxes and improve fairness by capping the local tax effort necessary to meet the local share.
Efficiency: To utilize state and local resources appropriately and effectively toward achieving state academic standards.
Accountability: Successfully achieve state and federal performance requirements. The state provides the necessary technical and financial resources and school districts demonstrate student outcomes, appropriate local financial resources and stewardship of taxpayer funds.
Predictability: Provide state funding in a manner that allows school districts to plan their budgets and programs.
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