Advocacy group backs Wolf education spending plan

Posted 8/21/12

HARRISBURG, PA — The Campaign for Fair Education Funding in Pennsylvania backs Gov. Tom Wolf’s education spending plan, and says the one proposed by the Republican-led state legislature is …

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Advocacy group backs Wolf education spending plan

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HARRISBURG, PA — The Campaign for Fair Education Funding in Pennsylvania backs Gov. Tom Wolf’s education spending plan, and says the one proposed by the Republican-led state legislature is insufficient. The campaign says Wolf’s proposal would increase basic education funding by more than $410 million, while the Republican plan would increase it by $100 million. A report from the campaign released on September 9 says Pennsylvania is currently the only state in the country without an education budget formula.

Campaign spokesman Charlie Lyons says that Pennsylvania has the widest funding gap of any state in the country, along with economic, racial and ethnic achievement gaps in education. The report says, “Pennsylvania currently does not have a data-driven public school funding system that takes into account factors such as student enrollment, challenges faced by students such as poverty or English language learning, the effect of charter school enrollment, and the unique characteristics of school districts like population density, community wealth and local taxing effort and capacity.” The report endorses the funding formula recommended by the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission, which contains such factors.

Under the Wolf funding plan, the Delaware Valley School District would receive about $131,000 more in state funding than under the Republican plan, Wallenpaupack would receive about $134,000 more and Wayne Highlands would receive about $220,000 more under the Wolf plan as opposed to the Republican plan.

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