The state’s Basic Education Funding Commission, chaired by Representative Peter Schweyer, recently released its plan for better funding schools statewide.
After a lawsuit last year determined Pennsylvania’s system of funding public schools was unconstitutional, the Commission had to look at what needed to be changed.
"Our federal standards are that 70% of students in a particular school district should achieve proficiency in their core subjects."
The recent proposal relies on a few key factors, including a baseline number of what’s spent on each student. It includes consideration for the number of English language learners, poverty rates, and similar details.
"We've been doing that in Pennsylvania for decades, where we acknowledge that English language learners, special education students, students living in rural poverty, have different needs. So we just applied those already existing factors to the overall top line number, how much it should cost to educate per child. And then we just simply said, 'Well, if the Allentown school district is spending this, but they're supposed to spend this, this is our gap. And that's the gap that we need to fill.'"
Representative Schweyer emphasized that this plan is only a roadmap. Components like school renovations and teacher retention will need to be addressed in the future.
Still, he called the report the “best case scenario” for the success of all students, whether they’re his own daughters in the Allentown School District or another kid across the state.
"The only major difference that we have from kids that are successful versus kids that struggle is how much we invest in that child. We have smart, capable, talented, hardworking, driven students in all walks of life in Pennsylvania. We just need to make sure that we're giving them all a fair shake to get there."
