State Boosts School Funding by 6% (PA)
July 6, 2010
Lancaster County schools will get a 6 percent boost in basic education funding in the 2010-11 state budget approved this week by the Legislature.
As of Friday, Gov. Ed Rendell had yet to sign the spending plan because of a dispute over whether a new fiscal oversight office should be included in the budget.
But state officials said the education funding numbers won’t change once the $28 billion spending plan is finalized.
That’s bad news for School District of Lancaster.
SDL is slated to get $1.9 million less in state aid than what Rendell promised in his budget proposal.
District administrators budgeted for the full amount and now must make up for the shortfall just days after the school board slashed $4 million — including cutting 55 1/2 positions — from SDL’s $168 million budget.
Unless grants come through to fill the funding gap, SDL may have to reopen its budget and make more cuts, said Todd Heath, co-chairman of the school board’s finance and operations committee.
"It’s just a huge blow to the budget when things are already tight and we’ve already had to cut a lot of things out," he said.
Finding additional areas to cut "is bound to be an unpleasant process," Heath said.
Overall, county schools will get about $4.3 million less in basic education subsidies than promised in Rendell’s budget, which called for an overall increase of 8.35 percent.<br /&g t;
The amount of state basic education money coming to county schools totals $165.7 million, an $8.6 million increase over the 2009-10 total.
But for the third year in a row, state funding for special education has not increased, and money for tutoring programs was slashed for 2010-11 by nearly 20 percent.
Accountability Block Grants, which pay for such things as all-day kindergarten and teacher training, also were cut by 4 percent.
Some county districts budgeted for little or no increase in state funding in light of the fiscal challenges facing Pennsylvania, which expects to end the year with a $1.2 billion deficit.
Warwick School District, for instance, budgeted for no increase in basic education funding for 2010-11 but will get an additional $597,000.
Conestoga Valley budgeted for $452,922 less than what it will get from the state, but the district was expecting increases in other state funding sources that didn’t materialize.
Overall, CV came out about $386,000 ahead, said Kim Seldomridge, director of administration and business services.
"We are anticipating and preparing for some very lean years, so any additional funds will go to prepare for the future," he said in an e-mail.
Penn Manor and Donegal school districts both budgeted for the full amount and now need to adjust their spending to fill revenue gaps of $234,834 and $174,000, respectively.
"We plan to use our reserve fund to purchase needed curriculum materials and technology," Donegal business manager Amy Swartz said in an e-mail. "Otherwise , we will be limiting or deferring expenditures where possible."
Penn Manor has yet to decide what it will cut, Superintendent Michael Leichliter said.
Manheim Central also got less state funding than it budgeted for.
The $111,375 shortfall will likely mean the district won’t fill a newly created position, chief financial officer, Superintendent Bill Clark said.
County school district officials said they appreciate that the Legislature finalized the budget by the July 1 deadline this year, especially after last year’s marathon budget standoff delayed adoption by 101 days.
While generally pleased that most of the promised state funding came through, superintendents expressed concerns that the revenue sources the state is counting on may not pan out.
The state budget assumes the federal government will approve an extra $24 billion in aid for states hit hard by the recession, including $850 million for Pennsylvania.
So far, that aid package hasn’t won enough support in Congress. And if the money doesn’t come through, Rendell has said the state would have to cut education and social services funding.
Leichliter also is concerned that proposed reforms to the state’s school employee pension fund have yet to be enacted.
Pension contribution rates for school districts are projected to increase nearly sixfold by 2012-13, which would cost county districts an additional $59 million in payments.
The expiration of stimulus funds next year is another worry, Leichliter said.
In each of the past tw o years, the state has used about $650 million in stimulus money to bolster the education budget.
Another funding source must be found to replace that money, he said.
"While we are pleased that a budget which maintains the state’s current obligations to schools was passed on time, there is still much work to be done regarding long-term funding levels for public education," he said in an e-mail.
Warwick Superintendent April Hershey agreed.
Her district currently has a healthy fund balance of $8 million, she said.
But if the pension spike and other state funding issues aren’t resolved, she said, that rainy-day fund would become a negative fund balance within two years.