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A new era in education funding in Pa.
Maybe miracles do happen.
Gov. Ed Rendell and the leaders of the Legislature reached a budget deal in the wee hours of the morning early Monday. Or maybe it was late Sunday.
The bottom line? No interruption of state government. No furloughs of state workers. And most of what Rendell wanted in his ambitious spending plan.
That will make people like Janis Risch happy. She’s the executive director of a group called Good Schools Pennsylvania, which has been pushing for increased education funding in the state.
It looks like she – and the governor -- are going to get their wish.
Rendell’s $28 billion dollar spending plan called for increasing education funding in the state by a hefty $2.6 billion over the next six years.
It looks like he is going to get what he wanted, at least most of it.
There will be an immediate infusion of new money for education. Rendell originally was seeking $291 million; it looks like he’s getting $274 million.
That money now will be distributed to local districts according to a formula devised in a recent “costing-out” study of the formula used to fund our schools. While all schools will see an increase in funding, the neediest districts will get more. That’s a clear attempt to level what has for a long time been an uneven playing field when it comes to how much districts can spend to educate their kids.
And it will be music to the ears of needy districts such as William Penn, Southeast Delco, Interboro and Upper Darby here in Delaware County.
Yesterday Risch was smiling.
“From my meetings in Harrisburg I believe that when all the details are finalized, we will see that the governor's education formula was largely preserved in this year's budget - and the proposed appropriations for struggling school districts like William Penn and Upper Darby,” Risch told me in an e-mail. “This would be precedent-setting - using a costing-out approach that actually counts all kids.”
Equally effusive was another longtime activist who sought to change the state education funding formula.
“This is an immense victory for children and schools in Pennsylvania,” said Baruch Kintisch, a spokesman for the Education Law Center, which has been in the forefront of the costing-out study and fixing the education funding riddle in the state.
In my print column on Monday, I joked that Risch was an optimistic warrior in the battle for education funding in Pennsylvania.
She’s been fighting for kids, especially those such as all too many in Delaware County who face an immediate impediment to their education simply because their district is not as well to do as many others, for a long time.
Yesterday, Risch was smiling. And for good reason.
Gov. Ed Rendell and the leaders of the Legislature reached a budget deal in the wee hours of the morning early Monday. Or maybe it was late Sunday.
The bottom line? No interruption of state government. No furloughs of state workers. And most of what Rendell wanted in his ambitious spending plan.
That will make people like Janis Risch happy. She’s the executive director of a group called Good Schools Pennsylvania, which has been pushing for increased education funding in the state.
It looks like she – and the governor -- are going to get their wish.
Rendell’s $28 billion dollar spending plan called for increasing education funding in the state by a hefty $2.6 billion over the next six years.
It looks like he is going to get what he wanted, at least most of it.
There will be an immediate infusion of new money for education. Rendell originally was seeking $291 million; it looks like he’s getting $274 million.
That money now will be distributed to local districts according to a formula devised in a recent “costing-out” study of the formula used to fund our schools. While all schools will see an increase in funding, the neediest districts will get more. That’s a clear attempt to level what has for a long time been an uneven playing field when it comes to how much districts can spend to educate their kids.
And it will be music to the ears of needy districts such as William Penn, Southeast Delco, Interboro and Upper Darby here in Delaware County.
Yesterday Risch was smiling.
“From my meetings in Harrisburg I believe that when all the details are finalized, we will see that the governor's education formula was largely preserved in this year's budget - and the proposed appropriations for struggling school districts like William Penn and Upper Darby,” Risch told me in an e-mail. “This would be precedent-setting - using a costing-out approach that actually counts all kids.”
Equally effusive was another longtime activist who sought to change the state education funding formula.
“This is an immense victory for children and schools in Pennsylvania,” said Baruch Kintisch, a spokesman for the Education Law Center, which has been in the forefront of the costing-out study and fixing the education funding riddle in the state.
In my print column on Monday, I joked that Risch was an optimistic warrior in the battle for education funding in Pennsylvania.
She’s been fighting for kids, especially those such as all too many in Delaware County who face an immediate impediment to their education simply because their district is not as well to do as many others, for a long time.
Yesterday, Risch was smiling. And for good reason.
posted by Heron's Nest at
7:28 AM
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