Education Law Center Standing Up for Public School Children NEITHER THOROUGH NOR EFFICIENT: SCHOOL FUNDING INEQUITY IN PENNSYLVANIA David Sciarra Education Law Center Pa. State Conference of NAACP Conference on Education, May 25, 2012

The Right to Education The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” Pa. Const. art. 3, § 14.

What is “Fair” School Funding? “Fair” school funding is defined as a state finance system that provides a sufficient level of funding to ensure equality of educational opportunity, with funding distributed to districts within the state to account for additional needs generated by student poverty.

Fair School Funding: Core Principles States should provide varying levels of funding to ensure equal educational opportunities to children with different needs. A “progressive” finance system allocates more funding to districts with high levels of student poverty; a “regressive” system allocates less to those districts; and a “flat” system allocates roughly the same across districts with varying needs.

State & Local Revenue per Pupil Low PovertyHigh Poverty State A (Low revenue, poverty “flat”) State B (Avg. implicit base rev., highly regressive) State C (Avg. implicit base rev., progressive)

Midwest

Mid-Atlantic

North Central

Gulf Coast

State Funding Distribution: Top 10 State At 0% Poverty At 30% Poverty High/LowGrade Utah$5,772$9,157159%A New Jersey$13,961$19,805142%A Ohio$8,993$12,301137%A Minnesota$10,026$13,043130%B Massachusetts$12,598$15,550123%B South Dakota$7,794$9,326120%B Indiana$10,137$11,951118%C Connecticut$14,468$16,855117%C Montana$8,577$9,986116%C Delaware$12,125$13,884115%C

State Funding Distribution: Bottom 10 State At 0% Poverty At 30% Poverty High/LowGrade Pennsylvania$13,788$12,30289%D Maine$12,914$11,47289%D Alabama$9,702$8,55188%D New York$18,702$16,28687%D Missouri$9,886$8,57187%D North Dakota$10,774$8,57780%F North Carolina$11,111$8,69978%F New Hampshire$13,958$10,84978%F Illinois$11,312$8,70777%F Nevada$10,561$7,97476%F

Does Federal Funding Matter? Less than 10% of school funding is federal funds Too small to have any effect on Fairness Title 1, RTT, etc.: “Subsidizing Inequity” New direction: drive states to make underlying finance systems fair

Does Fair Funding Mean Better Student Outcomes?

Gov. Corbett’s Cuts

Inequity Philly Style

Takeaways Fair School Funding: Essential precondition to reform efforts to close achievement gaps Key to Effective Teaching, Closing Gaps Urgent need for state school finance reform “Resistance is Deep” New Federal Policies: Title I and Federal Grants to leverage states to improve funding fairness

And While We’re At It.... Access to high quality Pre-K for every low income child, and every child in a low income community State Pre-K Systems: unify Head Start, Child Care and Public School Pre-K Right to attend school in safe and educationally adequate facilities State capital program – assess need, ensure financing

David Sciarra, Esq. Executive Director For More Information : 60 Park Place, Suite 300 Newark, NJ Phone: Fax: Education Law Center Standing Up for Public School Children