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Pennsylvania State Senate
06/07/2024 11:00 AM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?SPick=20230&chamber=S&cosponId=40984
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: June 12, 2023 12:12 PM
From: Senator Lisa M. Boscola
To: All Senate members
Subject: Expediting the Fair Funding Formula for Education, Two Year Transition.
 
I intend to introduce legislation based on my prior bill, SB123 of 2021, which I had introduced for consecutive sessions to rework our state’s practice of distributing education dollars. My prior proposal had sought to expedite the allocation of basic education money over a 4-year period through the 2014-15 funding formula that was bipartisan and unanimously approved by the Basic Education Funding Commission. My proposal this session seeks to shorten that transition to 2-years. While I understand that we cannot do this overnight, we need to find additional solutions to address the ‘hold harmless’ provision that was established many years ago.

This bill will expedite the use of the Fair Funding Formula incrementally over a 2-year period. Year-one would establish that 50% of all education dollars would be distributed through the Fair Funding Formula, with 50% continuing to be allotted through the Basic Education Formula. Year-2 would increase to that to a full 100% distribution through the Fair Funding Formula.

8 out of the 9 school districts in my Senatorial district are underfunded, and statewide reports as recent as 2022 highlight 277 districts across the state need more than $2,000 more per student to adequately support their students’ learning needs to prepare them to graduate and to compete in today’s economy. These underfunded school districts either make cuts to needed education programs and/or increase local property taxes to make up the difference. We simply can’t afford to knowingly underfund our school districts in this Commonwealth.

I invite you to join me in co-sponsoring this legislation. Co-sponsors to SB 123 of 2021 were: COLLETT, MUTH, SCHWANK, MENSCH, COMITTA, HAYWOOD, KANE, KEARNEY, TARTAGLIONE, MARTIN and A. WILLIAMS.
 


Introduced as SB930