As a member of the PSFC Steering Committee, PASCD supports the PA School Funding Campaign (PSFC) Statement on the use of Stimulus Funds and Talking Points for legislators. You can read these statements by downloading the pdf files below.
Statement on Use of Federal Stimulus Funds for Education
The federal economic stimulus package – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – provides Pennsylvania with $2.6 billion in funds for education over the next two years. Of this amount, $1.6 billion comes from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which must be used to support basic education or restore cuts in higher education ($44 million). The K-12 portion of the Stabilization Fund can be distributed only by the basic education formula adopted by the General Assembly last year or, if not, then by default, by the federal Title I formula. The state formula is preferable because it is based on the General Assembly’s 2007 Costing-Out Study and represents the principles of adequacy and equity, while Title I merely recognizes the number of low income children in each district.
Last summer the General Assembly took the historic step of adopting Act 61 – a fair and predictable school funding formula – and appropriating the first year installment on a six-year schedule to reach full funding. It is essential that the General Assembly maintain the current level of basic education funding and use federal stimulus dollars to increase that base by $418 million for next year by distributing the money through the new school funding formula.
Legislators in some states are considering cutting education funding and then using federal stabilization funds to replace state funds. If the General Assembly moves in that direction, it will stall progress on phasing in our first fair and predictable school funding formula in almost two decades.
Appropriating $418 million of the federal stimulus dollars to increase basic education funding now will enable Pennsylvania to avoid cuts in state support for school districts and reduce pressure on local tax increases to maintain current levels of education for students. We are concerned that some legislative leaders are sending messages to school superintendents that will result in unnecessary local tax increases out of fear that the legislature will not appropriate these funds to increase school funding.
The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign urges the General Assembly to act expeditiously to assure local officials that the Commonwealth will use $418 million in federal stabilization funds to increase basic education funding over current year levels through the basic education funding formula proposed for 2009-10 and maintain the current state investment in basic education at the 2008-09 level.
The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign is a statewide coalition of individuals and organizations representing hundreds of thousands of parents, students, educators, school board members, administrators and other concerned citizens advocating for adequate and equitable funding of Pennsylvania’s public schools.
