SV could receive 20% more funding if House education funding plan gets Senate approval
Educators, Shen. Valley super cheer, Republicans jeer bill’s passage
SHENANDOAH – “Unconstitutional underfunding means that educators in Shenandoah Valley create collateral damage, shifting scarce resources to some students who need them at the expense of others.”
Those words from Shenandoah Valley Superintendent Brian Waite echo his consistent statements, describing his job at the helm of the school district as minimizing collateral damage, including when legislators toured the campus in December.
The district was one of several plaintiff districts who brought a lawsuit, which ended in a ruling that deemed the state’s funding formula for public schools as unconstitutional. School board officials called the ruling “long overdue.”
Monday, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 2370 almost along party lines — 107-94, with all Democrats and five Republicans in favor.
“Today’s plan would give us the support to provide a public education that lives up to all our students’ amazing potential,” Waite said Monday. “I applaud the House of Representatives, and I hope the Senate will join them soon. Our kids are worth it.”
House Education Committee Majority Chairman Peter Schweyer (D-Lehigh) called the bill “monumental.”
“A fair and equal education for every Pennsylvania child has been a top priority for me since I first became a legislator, and it has been my most important goal since becoming Chairman of the House Education Committee last year,” Schweyer said. “What this bill does is reverse generational underfunding of school districts that goes back decades, and it invests in those children and those school districts that need it the most. I am proud to stand with every colleague in the legislature, both Democrat and Republican who supports this bill.
The bill revamps the education funding formula and introduces a system for dealing with what proponents called “adequacy gaps,” to help increase funding for over 367 underfunded districts. Proponents say that would help reduce the burden borne by local taxpayers. Shenandoah Valley and Panther Valley, two plaintiffs in the funding lawsuit, levy among the highest tax rates in Schuylkill County.
In total, Shenandoah Valley would receive 20.5% more funding. North Schuylkill and Mahanoy Area stand to gain as well, with 13.7% and 13.1% more funding respectively.
It would also cap cyber charter school tuition, which is paid for by the public school district where students live. In the Mahanoy Area School District, Business Manager John Hurst previously said the charter schools were creating a budget crunch for the district.
Mahanoy would save $527,000, while Shenandoah would save $416,000, and North Schuylkill would save $385,599 under the plan.
One school district in Schuylkill County would save over $1 Million — Williams Valley, at $1.135 Million.
Not everyone is on board, though.
House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) called the plan a “double down on a failing education system.”
He said the plan puts a “massive burden on taxpayers” and “would likely eliminate a meaningful school choice option” for students.
Cutler has previously called for vouchers to allow students at schools believed to be failing, including Shenandoah Valley and Mahanoy Area, to attend private schools. There are, however, no private parochial or non-Religious schools left in the Shenandoah and Mahanoy Valleys. Two Mennonite schools exist, near Fountain Springs and in Shenandoah, the latter which is operated out of a former doctor’s office for a dozen students.
The bill must still be approved by the Senate.
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