Pennsylvania lawmakers claim ‘Fair Funding Formula’ for schools is anything but ‘fair’ in budget hearings

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A state court has said Pennsylvania’s funding was unconstitutionally inequitable, which led to the creation of the Fair Funding Formula. The State House Appropriations hearings probed the topic today, as lawmakers clashed over whether the formula is helping fix disparities in education.

For several years, Pennsylvania has sent record amounts of money to public schools trying to fix the inequities. The formula steers more cash to schools deemed to have been most underfunded in the past.

Rural lawmakers now claim that their schools are getting little or no year-over-year increases, and are being unfairly penalized.

“Can you please cite exact examples of where making a higher investment is showing better test results?” said Rep. Marci Mustello (R-Butler).

“I don’t know that we can say that there’s a 1 to 1 correlation that simply adding money is going to beget immediately higher test scores,” answered Carrie Rowe, Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Education. “What I can say is that underfunding school districts we’ve seen has led to in some places, lower test scores.”

“We’re spending money the wrong way for our schools,” said Rep. Marla Brown (R-Lawrence). “We need more performance-based funding. Schools that are getting the most money, we often see that they continue to be underperforming schools, and again, the formula is not working the way it should.”

“We are only now beginning to right the inequities that have been built into the system for far too long,” said Rep. Kyle Mullins. “So give these kids, and give these schools the opportunity to show what they can do with better schools, better teachers, more opportunities for students.”

There is frustration the healthy reserves of wealthier districts aren’t considered when deciding how much more money to send them.

“School districts are getting money from the state and putting it in a savings account basically saving money and putting it aside while other school districts don’t have enough for basic necessities,” said Rep. Ryan Warner (R-Fayette County).

Governor Shapiro wants cyber charter tuitions capped at $8,000 a year.

“Do we know what the actual cost is?” asked Rep. Josh Kail (R-Beaver, Washington).

Rep. Kail argues the lowest district pays $7,700 per student and cyber charters accept it.

“Then $8,000, which is slightly more than that, should be sufficient to cover those costs,” said Kail.

The hearings ended. The fight over fair funding for schools has not.

At nearly $20 billion, education is the second-largest line item in the state budget, as only human services, at $21 billion, receives more. It is important to note that last session the House did pass a bill capping cyber charter tuition and calling for more transparency. It went nowhere in the Senate.