An article in the Washington Post calls PA school districts “the nation’s most inequitable” based on Federal data that states “school districts with the highest poverty rates here receive one-third fewer state and local tax dollars, per pupil, than the most affluent districts”. While the central premise of the article is on funding, it presents a data table showing per pupil spending by ten districts, mostly in eastern Pennsylvania, that shows Lower Merion (Montgomery) spends 2.65 times more per pupil than Mt. Carmel (Northumberland).
So how does inequality move to equality? Data from the state’s Department of Education on funding (local and state combined) shows that in 2012-13 the state provided 11% of Lower Merion’s funding while it provided 71% of Mt. Carmel’s funding. On a per pupil basis–Lower Merion has 8,202 students, Mt Carmel has 1,912–the state contribution amounts to $2,811 in Lower Merion and $5,848 in Mt. Carmel. If the state says it will fund 50% of the total that would require a $9,734 boost in Lower Merion and a $1,779 reduction in Mt. Carmel, based on current per pupil funding total.
If the state said equality means Mt. Carmel should be funding its pupils at the amount Lower Merion does (note that the aid ratios in the two districts are 0.15 and 0.771, respectively, and the lower the aid ratio the more affluent the district is in terms of market value and personal income), that would require an infusion of close to $17,000 per pupil in state funds (that’s based on current local per pupil of $2,291, current state per pupil of $5,848, and Lower Merion’s combined per pupil of $25,091). Or if it told Lower Merion it could only fund its students at the rate Mt Carmel does then it would have to order Lower Merion to reduce its local taxes by that much. Both scenarios would quickly run afoul of a goal of 50% state funding, unless the state would also include a provision that would prevent local tax increases that could tip the 50/50 balance.
So, on the heels of the Commonwealth Court’s ruling on the lawsuit brought on school funding one can see how the General Assembly’s funding commission has its work cut out for it.
