As mentioned in a recent Brief the Erie School District is one of the school districts in the state that has had to look for funding during the state impasse, going so far as to request a $47 million loan from the Department of Education.

It makes sense that districts that are heavily reliant on state revenue are going to be affected more by the impasse than those that generate more money locally.  Here in Allegheny County while Sto-Rox, McKeesport, and Clairton have had to take out loans Quaker Valley and Montour, for example, are not taking similar actions as of yet.

That’s the case for Erie, since a look at the state’s summaries of financial data shows that in 2013-14 Erie received $93.1 million in state revenue, which represents 55% of total revenue (local, state, Federal, other).  On a per-pupil basis state revenue in Erie was $6.857, which ranked it 203 out of 500 school districts (297 districts received less per-pupil from the state).

Of course there is frustration in Erie over the impasse and the denial of the loan request, but when the superintendent of the District stated at a meeting that  “Just because you live in a community that has a high poverty index, shouldn’t mean that you should have school systems that are underfunded” it does not stand up to scrutiny.

Consider working backward from the 2013-14 data above to 2000-01.  In that year, Erie raised $45.7 million locally (43% of total) and received $48.6 million from the state (46%).  As mentioned above, state revenue in 2013-14 jumped to $93.1 million–an increase of 91%.  Local revenue increased to $58.1 million, or 27%.  Local and state revenue combined increased 55% on a per-pupil basis over that time frame.

A near doubling of state revenue in fifteen years while enrollment grew 3% and the implication is that the school district is underfunded?