LWVPA Statement on PA Education Funding in State Budget

By Monica Ratnaraj, Policy and Communications Fellow

Last week, the Pennsylvania 2022–2023 budget was released, approving billions of dollars in new spending. This included substantial changes to state education funding. While the increased funding for schools is a great step, lawmakers should go further in regulating charter schools and improving equity in school funding. 

The new budget secures a historic increase of $850 million in recurring basic and special education funding for K-12 schools. There is an additional $225 million more in Level Up funding for the 100 most deeply underfunded school districts. Community colleges, Pre-K schools, and programs such as the “It’s On Us” sexual assault prevention program also have an increase in funding under this budget. There are additional one-time grants of $100 million for school safety and $100 million for mental health programs for public and charter schools. 

Working with an unprecedented $12 billion surplus, Governor Tom Wolf had initially proposed an education budget with a $1.75 billion increase in funding for K-12 schools in addition to common sense regulations for charter schools. However, Republican leaders in the Senate opposed these regulations, including refusing to allow a vote on legislation that would curb wasteful excess spending in Pennsylvania charter schools. Read more about the League’s stance on charter school regulations here. 

The budget released last week after months of negotiation includes no charter school regulations and has been critiqued for not doing enough to alleviate inequalities in the Pennsylvania education system. The budget increases the amount of tax credits available for private and religious school vouchers from $100 million to $330 million per year. There are no academic standards or requirements for schools that receive these vouchers and very little state oversight. In the state of Pennsylvania, these vouchers will likely be used to fund the private education of already wealthy students and reinforce the influence of religious-based institutions with little oversight. 

Research from Fund Our Schools PA has found that low-wealth Pennsylvania school districts have $4,800 less to spend per student than wealthy school districts. This gap in funding has further equity implications when considering that more than 50 percent of Black students and 40 percent of Latino students attend districts in the bottom 20 percent of local wealth. 

The new education budget is a great step forward, securing historic funding increases for Pennsylvania schools. We want to extend our thanks to the advocates and lawmakers who fought to secure this funding, including $225 million towards schools with the greatest need. 

However, we can demand that our state leadership do better. Lawmakers must take further steps to regulate charter and private schools that take state funding without the checks imposed on public institutions. Additionally, there should be increased efforts to reduce the structural inequities present in school funding to ensure each Pennsylvania student is receiving a quality education.