EQUITY FIRST RELEASES 2018 LIST OF THE MOST UNDERFUNDED SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY COUNTY
Citizens for Fair School Funding
Media Contact:
@EquityFirstOrg
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2018
EQUITY FIRST RELEASES 2018 LIST OF THE MOST UNDERFUNDED SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY COUNTY
The Brutal-Truth of Basic Education and Special Education Funding
The Top 11 Underfunded Counties in School Funding are Underfunded $1.04 BILLION, annually
While the Top 11 Overfunded Counties in School Funding are Overfunded by $598 Million, annually
Philadelphia & Berks County School Districts Underfunded by $508 Million
Allegheny and Westmoreland School Districts Overfunded by $215 million
3 State Budgets Keep Giving Overfunded Districts MORE funding, while Severely Underfunded Districts Forced to Eliminate Pre-K, Kindergarten, Librarians and Technology
(Harrisburg, PA) – May 1, 2018 – This week, EquityFirst and The Citizens for Fair School Funding released the 2018 List of Most Underfunded School Districts by County. The results are gut-wrenching. EquityFirst releases the County List to demonstrate the widespread disparities negatively impacting almost 1 million students across Pennsylvania.
11 counties have school districts underfunded by more than $1.04 BILLION dollars, as it relates to the funding formulas.
Yet, Allegheny County has school districts overfunded by $140 Million. Westmoreland County has school districts overfunded by $75 Million. Washington County – $54 Million. Beaver County – $52 Million. Cameron County – $49 Million, as it relates to the funding formulas.
“This massive underfunding impacting the poorest, most-minority students is morally wrong. It’s time for every single state representative, every state senator and Governor Wolf to search their souls and moral conscience to understand why each of them are not immediately fixing this moral wrong,” stated Kelly Lewis, co-founder of EquityFirst. “It’s the most egregious funding discrimination problem in the United States,” he added.
On a per-student basis, the York City School District won first prize for being the most underfunded by $6,565 per student in basic and special education. In a close second place, Reading School District is underfunded by $6,520 per student and moving up to third place, Harrisburg School District is now underfunded by $5,335 per student.
Conversely, South Side Area School District wins the laurels for most overfunded School District at a whopping $7,666 per student in basic and special education. No, that’s not a typo.
All told, 138 school districts are underfunded by $1.22 Billion dollars, annually, as it relates to the funding formulas.
The proposed state budget does little to reverse three decades of underfunding for the state’s most underfunded districts as the proposed budget only adds $100 Million for Basic education and $20 million for Special education.
To make matters worse for the underfunded districts, the past three (3) state budgets have continued to share the funding with all 500 districts including the state’s most overfunded districts. The new state budget proposes to distribute the new funding to all 500 districts regardless of need. By doing so, the current underfunding will remain in place for more than 33-years.
Link to the 2018 List of Crushed School Districts, click on: Is My District Under-Funded: https://supportequityfirst.org/learn-more/
Equity First the non-profit coalition dedicated to fixing basic and special education funding in Pennsylvania, re-issued its three (3) year call to action for the General Assembly and Governor from the Report of the Basic Education Funding Commission.
The 2018 Equity First Plan to End School Funding Discrimination:
- Effective immediately, the State Budget shall distribute 100% of funding through the bipartisan funding formulas for Basic Education and Special Education for all students.
- No overfunded school districts shall receive any new state funding until all school districts are fully-funded through the bipartisan-adopted funding formulas for Basic Education and Special Education.
- Establish the School District Consolidation Fund to encourage the efficient consolidation of school districts.
- Cap the Fund Balance and Reserve Fund account balances at 18%.
- Establish a Cost Savings Commission to scrutinize all K-12 spending to implement cost-saving strategies.
For more information, visit www.SupportEquityFirst.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @EquityFirstOrg.
The Citizens for Fair School Funding is a non-profit organization established to (1) raise awareness of the findings of the June 2015 bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission, (2) help underfunded school districts get funding equity as soon as possible so they don’t remain underfunded for another 25 years (3) support the establishment of the School Consolidation Fund and Cost-Savings Commission recommended in the BEF Commission Report. www.SupportEquityFirst.org
| Top 11 Underfunded Counties in School Funding |
| Philadelphia | ($369,372,060) |
| Berks | ($148,930,461) |
| Lehigh | ($98,924,497) |
| York | ($87,251,886) |
| Lancaster | ($63,197,597) |
| Dauphin | ($49,643,528) |
| Montgomery | ($48,698,334) |
| Delaware | ($48,566,780) |
| Luzerne | ($47,138,529) |
| Lackawanna | ($41,402,964) |
| Monroe | ($44,435,599) |
| Total | ($1,047,562,234) |
| Top 11 Overfunded Counties in School Funding | |
| Allegheny | $140,784,116 |
| Westmoreland | $75,149,082 |
| Washington | $54,510,234 |
| Beaver | $52,892,060 |
| Cameron | $49,005,342 |
| Erie | $46,159,869 |
| Butler | $41,924,101 |
| Blair | $38,531,327 |
| Fayette | $36,100,052 |
| Lawrence | $32,979,645 |
| Somerset | $30,320,515 |
| Total | $598,356,343 |