In June of 2015 the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission released its recommendations on a formula to distribute state dollars for K-12 basic education. In implementing the formula, the decision was made to apply it to only new dollars appropriated beyond 2014-15 allocations–leaving in place the “hold harmless” provision which ensures school districts would not get less than the year previous. The decision was made with the acknowledgement that doing away with it would have affected 320 school districts where enrollment had fallen, affecting $1 billion in funding.
Last week events were held around the Commonwealth, including one here in Allegheny County, which was also highlighted in an opinion piece after the meeting, essentially stating that state money is not keeping up with the costs districts are facing. Out east an event in Montgomery County stated that only 6% of the total amount of state funding for K-12 is currently driven through the Commission formula and looked at two districts in the County (Colonial and Pottstown, see second embedded slide in this article) and examines the state/local funding disparity (an issue we wrote about in the fall in regards to a lawsuit).
As we pointed out in that piece, with Lower Merion and Shenandoah Valley school districts cited by the petitioners, the efforts to equalize two such districts would require either a massive boost in state funding for one district or a reduction in local funding for the other, unless the state assumed responsibility for 100% of public school funding and allocated money to districts in a way that satisfied “fairness” and “equity”. An editorial on the Montgomery County meeting stated “Pottstown has become in recent years a poster child for differences in school funding between rich and poor districts”. If they are basing that off of the slide, it shows that Pottstown has a millage of 32.9 mills, more than twice as much as Colonial (13.4 mills) but the former raises $10,247 per pupil locally to $18,724 in the latter district. The state gives $2,500 more per pupil to Pottstown.
However, looking at the state Department of Education’s data on financial elements, including the aid ratios of market value and personal income, Colonial has a property tax base of $6.4 billion and an aid ratio of 0.15 while Pottstown has a property tax base of $1 billion and an aid ratio of 0.6752. Of course Colonial is going to be able to raise more locally than Pottstown; the state does give more to Pottstown per pupil, so is it the fault of the state that there ends up being a $6,000 difference in the end result? Should the state boost its taxes to make sure Pottstown spends at Colonial’s level? If so, how does it ensure that Colonial does not raise its taxes to cause a gap going forward?
As we have stated before, as long as local funding is part of the mix, and there are districts with a lot of property value that can raise large sums with low millage rates, there will always be disparities in funding from district to district.
