(The Center Square) – At 1.5 million, fewer students today attend Pennsylvania’s public schools than in 2019 by roughly 7%.
That figure climbs to 18% when analyzing enrollment figures since 2000, as the Commonwealth Foundation did in its latest report on public education funding, using state data. The raw data equates to 8 in 10 districts – of which 500 exist – and comes even as schools spend more money on staff, facilities and bolstering reserve funds.
The policy group, focused on fiscal conservancy in state government, concludes that increasing support for shrinking schools, as has been done for the better part of two decades, hasn’t translated to students learning more proficiently.
Despite collecting 47% more tax revenue since 2013, standardized test scores continue to fall. Since 2019, proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments has dropped 18.8%, while proficiency on the Keystone Exams, given in high school, has declined 21.6%.
So what does all this mean to the foundation? The state’s commitment to invest more dollars in public schools isn’t solving the problem. But more financial and regulatory support for nontraditional public schools – like charters, cyber charters, career and technical education and home schools – would do a better job.
Not so fast, according to many school board members responsible for stewarding taxpayer money into student programs, facility repairs and improvements, and covering the bills during emergency situations – such as when the state fails to pass a budget on time, as has happened for the last three years.
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association represents 4,500 elected school board directors across the commonwealth. During the organization’s most recent “advocacy day” at the state capitol on May 4, members asked for more support for “unfunded mandates” – some of which cover nontraditional costs, such as cyber charter tuition and district-provided transportation for private school students.
There’s also pension contributions, prevailing wage laws, special education programs and rules about the sizes of emergency savings account balances. They say the $17.7 billion spent on public education last year isn’t enough and often forces them to delay building repairs and raise local taxes.
“Public school districts need stability and predictability to serve students well,” said Sabrina Backer, a school board director for Franklin Area School District and president of the association. “By addressing these issues, lawmakers can help ensure that local leaders are focused on education – not managing avoidable fiscal crises.”
According to the Education Data Initiative, using federal data, the 2023 national average for per-student spending was nearly $17,000 in 2023. Pennsylvania spent closer to $21,000, ranking 13th highest in the nation. Its per-student funding, however, is closer to $28,000, rating it 11th in the nation.
“Inflated spending fails to address the root causes of the education problem: a lack of options,” said Rachel Langen, senior education policy analyst for the foundation. “For students trapped in failing schools, additional funds do little to benefit the quality of their education. Some of the poorest schools in the state receive the highest levels of supplemental funding – with little to no academic improvement.”
Langen pointed to a different, albeit controversial, option: make school choice easier and more accessible in Pennsylvania.
The commonwealth spends $680 million on tax credits to subsidize private school tuition for low-income students. The foundation and Republican lawmakers want to see more money directed to the programs to accommodate 70,000 children on the waiting lists.
Critics, including legislative Democrats, say this money is awarded without enough oversight and should be more narrowly targeted to poorer families. A bill passed in the state House earlier this week would address those concerns by reorganizing how the tax credits are awarded and charging fees to participating donor groups.
It awaits consideration in the Republican-majority Senate, which has already publicly rejected the bill as a “backward step.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro, in his most recent budget proposal, wants to give $565 million more to struggling public schools through a new adequacy formula intended to comply with a court decision that found the state’s old funding system inequitable. In the last three years, the state has funneled $1 billion through the new formula.
