The ABCs of education funding
By Representative Dwight Evans
Over the last 30 years, Maven president Melanese Shaw and I have spent countless hours discussing, debating and dissecting the state of education in our city, Commonwealth and country. It’s a subject about which I’m passionate and as a lawmaker, I consider it my signature issue. There is far too little space here even to summarize my work over three decades.
But I want to be clear: the stability and future of our state and our nation lies in the quality of education we can provide for all students at all grades levels, from pre-school to post-graduate. I believe it is the single defining issue of our time and the single most important element in stabilizing our economy for future generations.
As such, I have built my career understanding education policy and supporting more than just the traditional public school model of education that defined us through most of the 20th Century. In this day and age we must be open to new ideas for educating students and we must be committed to funding our education system.
I was a strong supporter of a study conducted by the legislature, formally known as the “Costing-Out” Study (Act 114-2006), which sought to define the level of dollars the state needed to invest so that the Commonwealth could provide “adequate and equitable” funding for each school district in Pennsylvania.
In the spring of 2008, the General Assembly accepted the study’s finding and recommendations putting Pennsylvania on target to meeting funding goals over the course of the six years beginning with the state’s ‘08/09 budget.
And then reality hit us in the form of the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
As we all know too well, the state’s financial crisis required us to make deep cuts in programs that support everything from agriculture to zoos. Last year, the battle over cuts versus raising revenue lasted for 101 days. In the end, Democrats and Governor Rendell managed to increase our state support for basic education. Still it was short of what the costing-out study recommended.
This year, I envision a similar debate over the Governor’s proposed $354 million increase in basic education funding.
During the state’s budget hearings in January and February, I made it clear this was an investment worth making, despite falling revenues. The General Assembly agreed.
House Bill 2279, the state’s General Fund budget bill, was sent to the Senate on March 23rd, 100 days prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year. It had bi-partisan support, a sure sign that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the House believe we should invest in education.
Our budget negotiations this year have not yet begun. Our revenues, although more stable than last year, continue to fall. As a state, we face major expenses including skyrocketing health care, prison and pension costs. I can almost guarantee there will be those who will argue that given our finances, we can’t afford to invest another $354 million in our schools.
I can assure you that I will be arguing that we can’t afford not to.
Stay tuned, over next 2 weeks, the Village of Maven will continue this discussion by featuring key detail further outlining the state’s education proposal.
