WE JOIN PA SCHOOLS WORK TO CALL FOR $175 BILLION IN EMERGENCY FEDERAL AID TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

On July 1, the PA Schools Work coalition sent a joint letter to Pennsylvania Senators Casey and Toomey, calling for federal funding for K-12 schools facing deep revenue shortfalls due to COVID-19 July 1, 2020 Dear Senators Casey and Toomey: There is no clearer example of the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic than the challenges public schools are facing as they close out this school year and look towards reopening in the fall. It is a tense time, and we are trying to teach our children about what to do and how to be safe, including ...

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If #BlackLivesMatter: Why Does Pennsylvania Have the Most Racist School Funding in the Nation and They Repeatedly Refuse to Fix It

After Five (5) Years of No Action, it’s Time for Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to Invest $1.22 Billion in Emergency Funding to bring the 138 Underfunded School Districts to their Baseline Funding Level Harrisburg, PA – The nation’s first public protest of slavery occurred in Pennsylvania in 1688. In 1835, Thaddeus Stevens led passage of the Free Education Bill.   Since Pennsylvania’s founding, it has been a leader among nations.   But Pennsylvania didn’t enact school funding formula laws until Act 126 of 2014 established ...

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Editorial: PA’s fair funding formula for basic education doesn’t live up to its name

Posted Mar 7, 2019 at 5:57 AM Let’s say you’d like to refinance your home’s 6 percent, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to lock in a new interest rate of, say, 4 percent. After you do the deal, you’re told your new 4-percent rate will only apply to 10 percent of the $200,000 mortgage. So you’d get the new rate on $20,000. The other $180,000 would continue to drum up interest at the 6 percent rate. You’d probably wonder how that’s going to make any difference at all. You might even say it wasn’t fair. That’s one way to think about something ...

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Rep. Rabb to host Policy Committee hearing on fair school funding Wednesday in Philadelphia

Policy Committee    January 18, 2019 | 5:08 PM PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 18 – State Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Phila., will host a House Democratic Policy Committee public hearing to discuss the moral implications and practical solutions to addressing Pennsylvania’s ranking as the worse state in the U.S. on public education funding equity. The hearing will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the Eleanor C. Emlen School, 6501 Chew Ave., Philadelphia. The media and public are invited to attend. He will be joined by state legislators from across the ...

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For Immediate Release: 20 Years of Basic Education Funding in Pennsylvania

Citizens for Fair & Equitable School Funding www.SupportEquityFirst.org   Media Contact: Shelly@SupportEquityFirst.org @EquityFirstOrg  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 14, 2018 Twenty Years of Basic Education Funding in Pennsylvania Looking at Governors in Four Year Terms (adjusted for inflation) $1.15 Billion – Rendell – 2nd Term of 4-year term $   908.52 Million – Rendell – 1st Term of 4-year term $   745.82 Million – Ridge/Schweiker – 2nd Term of 4-year term $   575.50 Million – Corbett 4-year term $   564.25 Million – Wolf 1st ...

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PASBO-PASA Releases 2018 School District Budget Report

News Release Contacts: Jay Himes (717) 540-9551 jhimes@pasbo.org Dr. Mark DiRocco (717) 540-4448 mdirocco@pasa-net.org Hannah Barrick (717) 979-0426 hbarrick@pasbo.org HARRISBURG, PA – June 7, 2018 As school districts across the state finalize their 2018-19 budgets, many continue to face challenging financial conditions requiring cuts and reductions to programs and increased property taxes to offset the annual growth in mandated costs. The latest iteration of the PASBO-PASA School District Budget Report, a joint initiative of the PA Association of School B...

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York City schools: End of state oversight near?

Lindsay C. VanAsdalan, York DispatchPublished 10:46 a.m. ET June 7, 2018 | Updated 12:43 p.m. ET June 7, 2018 For nearly six years, the York City school board has operated under the watchful eye of a state-appointed financial recovery officer. That watchdog now says the district is making good progress, and her oversight might not be needed much longer. However, Carol Saylor said only one of the four financially distressed districts ensnared by a 2012 law — Harrisburg — has completed its recovery plan, and it's still awaiting word on its recovery status....

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State Rep. Carol Hill-Evans: It’s time for Pa. to address education funding

by Carol Hill-Evans Published 12:25 p.m. ET May 31, 2018 We in Pennsylvania have serious work to do to address education funding, and we don’t have to look beyond York to see why. A recent study concluded that York City School District is the most underfunded school district, on a per-student basis, in Pennsylvania. The district also has the highest percentage of students living in acute, or extreme, poverty in Pennsylvania. Those statistics help demonstrate how unfair the current system of school funding is, stacked against those students who need the most ...

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YORK DAILY RECORD: YORK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT AMONG MOST UNDERFUNDED IN PENNSYLVANIA

Rick Lee, rlee@ydr.comPublished 4:27 p.m. ET May 15, 2018 | Updated 1:32 p.m. ET May 16, 2018 Watchdog group claims underfunding is discriminatory York City School District is the most underfunded public school district in Pennsylvania in terms of money spent per student, according to EquityFirst, a watchdog group concerned with basic and special education funding in the commonwealth. And, the city district ranks fourth overall in EquityFirst's list of most underfunded Pennsylvania school districts. EquityFirst based its findings on data collected from the ...

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(YORK DISPATCH) COALITION: YORK CITY DISTRICT IS PA’S MOST UNDERFUNDED PER STUDENT

Lindsay C. VanAsdalan, 717-505-5450/@lcvanasdalanPublished 12:58 p.m. ET May 14, 2018 | Updated 4:42 p.m. ET May 16, 2018 A coalition fighting for equitable education funding in Pennsylvania has named York City the most underfunded school district in the state based on per-student spending, and one of the most severely underfunded overall. Underfunded by $51.65 million in basic and special education annually and by $6,565 per student, the York City School District is one of 19 within the state's 500 school districts that is underfunded by more than $10 million. M...

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