Background Paper – April 2010
In 2008, the legislature replaced Pennsylvania’s non-system of funding schools that was based on the annual decisions of a few political leaders. We now have a rational formula that counts students, accounts for their individual needs, recognizes the costs of helping them achieve the state’s academic standards, and sets a timetable to close funding gaps by 2013-14. Districts with the biggest funding gaps have the lowest test scores and have gotten the biggest funding increases so far. They are investing in strategies shown by research to improve student performance over time, so we must sustain our investment in the funding reform to give local education reforms a chance to work. The 2010-11 state budget must continue to distribute funds through the formula and must appropriate enough state money to restore the state funding commitment to the 2008-09 funding level of $5.226 billion.
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