Columbia Special-Ed Funding Comes Up Flat
April 1, 2010
It’s bad news for those involved in the Columbia Borough School District’s special education program: Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed 2010-2011 budget contains no increase for special education.
"It would be fine if the cost of special education were staying the same. But the fact is that the cost of special education is rising," Tom Strickler, chairman of the Columbia Borough School Board, said March 7.
The number of special education students in a school district, Strickler said, works out to be about 23 percent of the student body.
"Right now we’re just starting on putting together our budget for the 2010-2011 school year," Strickler said. "So hopefully, in a few months, we’ll have a better picture on what’s going on."
Though the governor’s $26.3 billion proposed budget unveiled in February contains an increase of $354 million in funding for public education in Pennsylvania, according to Michael Race, Communications Director for the Department of Education in Harrisburg, the budget keeps funding for special education the same as in previous years.
"The budget sets aside $1,206,815, the same (number) as in the 2008-2009 school year," Race said.
It’s a number which covers special education needs such as teacher salaries, books and materials and other needed resources.
"The governor thought it was very important to main tain funding," Race said, "even in a bad economy with the state facing a budget gap."
Many programs in the proposed budget are being eliminated, he said, so "anything being flat-funded shows commitment," Race said.
Writing in a March 5 e-mail, Laura Cowburn, assistant to the superintendent for Business Services for the Columbia Borough School District, said this is the fourth year in a row in which the state has flat-funded special education to Columbia.
"This is putting a strain on the entire budget as special education service costs continue to increase," Cowburn said.
"Right now, we are evaluating what this will mean for Columbia," she said, adding that "certainly, various cuts, reductions or eliminations of programs" may have to be considered as Columbia goes through its budget process.
Though calls to state Rep. David Hickernell on the budget were not returned, Nathan Flood, chief of Staff for state Sen. Mike Brubaker, said that, right now, the governor’s proposed budget is working its way through the state House in Harrisburg.
"We’ll evaluate the Governor’s proposals and make sure to take a look at every line item," Flood said March 12. "Right now the state is facing declining revenues, so we’ll have to make some hard decisions."
He added, however, that special education is something that’s necessary for school districts such as Columbia to function.
"We’ll just have to see how things are going to shake out," he said.& lt;/p>
Speaking on March 15, Dr. Barry Clippinger, superintendent of the Columbia Borough School District, said the cost of special education is rising because the cost for providing for students’ individual needs is rising
"All students on the continuum from Specific Learning Disabilities to Multiple Disabilities are being affected," he said in a March 15 e-mail. "Some of them attend additional classes here in the district, while others have to be assigned to work with other outside groups, like IU 13 or other agencies."
The reason Columbia has a higher number of special-needs students than other areas of the state, Clippinger said, has partly to do with students whose families move into the school district, often when those students are older.
"The state has an overall special education rate of about 15 percent, and that’s what the state uses in its formula for reimbursement," he said. "But the money … does not follow where the special education students are located."
If the state again fails to increase special education funding for Columbia, Clippinger said, then the needed money for special education programs will have to come from other areas of the school district’s 2010-2011 budget.
"And those areas will have to see decreases in their funded allocations," he said.
The school district will begin putting together its 2010-2011 budget at the end of this month.