Study: Education funding formula to level playing field
PHILADELPHIA – An education funding formula could help remedy wide spending disparities among school districts in Pennsylvania and would likely mean more state aid for perpetually cash-strapped Philadelphia, according to a study released Thursday.
A formula that takes into account districts’ wealth and its students’ needs “probably would reduce the substantial variations in overall education revenue among urban, rural, and suburban districts in the state,” said the report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Education advocates were pushing Pennsylvania lawmakers to devise what they view as a more equitable way to distribute state aid. A funding formula commission is expected to issue a report by June.
Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina are the only states without funding formulas, according to Education Law Center.
The Pew researchers cautioned a formula, by itself, does not guarantee an infusion of state aid.
But they added “regardless of the level of overall funding from Pennsylvania, a new formula would almost certainly provide Philadelphia with a larger share of state education money than it receives under the current system.”
Pew said a formula might also reduce state funding to wealthier suburban districts with smaller numbers of high-needs students, narrowing the wide spending disparity between those districts and poor ones.
The report examined 10 districts in the state representing a variety of demographics: urban Philadelphia, Erie, Pittsburgh and Reading; rural Connellsville, Solanco and West Perry; and suburban Lower Merion, Council Rock and Radnor Township.
It also compared Philadelphia with 10 urban systems nationwide that use funding formulas. Researchers found seven of those districts spend more per-pupil than Philadelphia.
Therapists found the affluent districts of Council Rock, Lower Merion and Radnor received less per student in state funding than the urban and rural districts, they still were able to spend significantly more in 2012-13 because they get most of their revenue from local property and income taxes. Lower Merion spent nearly twice as much ($26,812) per student as Philadelphia ($14,683), and more than twice as much as Connellsville, Erie, Reading, Solanco and West Perry.
• Philadelphia, the state’s largest district, got nearly 46 percent of its revenue from the state in 2013-14, slightly higher than average among the 10 large districts to which it was compared.
• All 10 of those states use funding formulas, but in only one, Florida, does the formula provide additional funding to big-city districts.