What will your district receive?

Governor Tom Wolf signed a state budget with the largest investment in education funding Pennsylvania has ever seen.

With a historic boost of $ 416 million for public education, the state budget aims to push the Commonwealth towards a post-COVID recovery, officials said.

“It’s a budget that invests in Pennsylvanians,” Wolf said. “It’s a budget that will help those hardest hit by the pandemic get the support they need, while making critical investments in our future by supporting the students and workers who will drive our economy forward in the years to come.” to come up.”

Budget investments include a $ 200 million increase in the equitable funding formula, enacted in 2016 for equitable public funding of education in all school districts; $ 50 million more for funding special education; a $ 20 million increase in funding for the Loan to Learn Block Grant; and an additional $ 100 million to support underfunded school districts through the Level Up initiative.

The budget also includes a grant of $ 72.7 million for secondary and technical education programs across the state.

For the next school year, Bucks County school districts will receive an estimated total of $ 154.4 million. This is an increase of approximately $ 5.8 million from last year’s funding.

In May, local superintendents and school administrators came together to call on state lawmakers to increase what they called essential school funding in the midst of their struggles to balance their budgets.

Even with the additional funding included in this year’s budget, some, including the PA Schools Work educational coalition, feel it’s not enough.

Related:Bucks County principals join Pennsylvania in pushing for more public funding for education

For subscribers:‘Thriving business community’ puts Yardley on the map

“The increased investment of this budget in public schools will not come close to compensating for the increase in mandatory costs for school districts over the past two years, let alone the investments needed to compensate for persistent shortfalls in state funding, ”the organization said in a statement.

“Despite claims to the contrary, Pennsylvania’s share of school funding is still one of the lowest in the country and local taxpayers still bear the heavy and unfair burden of providing the bulk of public school funding.”

The Borough of Bristol is the only school district in Bucks County to receive a higher level supplement for the upcoming school year, data shows, with $ 143,205 set aside for the program.

Superintendent Rose Minniti said that while her district is grateful for the Level Up supplement, the new formula used to calculate how funds will be distributed takes funding away from their total amount for next year.

“We’re the only school district, I believe, in Bucks County that’s losing funding, so Level Up funding still leaves us $ 3,600 less than the funding we received last year,” Minniti said. .

Without Level Up funding, she explained, the Bristol Borough School District would be more than $ 100,000 less than last year’s basic education funding, which stood at 6,882,432. $.

“With all the extra money that goes into the school district budget, you know, it’s very disheartening for us that our lower county kids who need it the most are getting less funding,” Minniti said.

Morrisville School District Superintendent Jason Harris has made it clear that while he is also grateful for the funds, the $ 3.6 million allocated to his district for next year is not enough to meet his needs. .

Last year Morrisville received just over $ 3.1 million in basic education funding.

“We were excluded from Level Up funding, which was really disappointing,” said Harris.

Like Minniti, he disputes the formula.

“We are consistently underfunded by the state, and we actually asked the governor to review the formula because we believe that formula is not accurate,” Harris said.

“We rely on grants and one-time funding to fill the gaps, but this is not sustainable with the rising costs of charter schools, pensions and special education,” he said.

Here’s a closer look at the funding allocated to the Bucks and Montgomery County school districts for the year 2021-2022.

In Montgomery County, the North Penn School District is expected to receive approximately $ 11,811,117 for basic education, $ 6,749,047 for special education and $ 577,539 for Ready to Learn.

The state budget includes over $ 2.3 million for special education funding for the Hatboro-Horsham school district, over $ 5.5 million for basic education and $ 270,230 for Ready to Learn.

More content for subscribers:The Sellersville Museum has preserved the history of the city for decades. Now he needs some savings.

Demand is decreasing:Bucks County to close vaccination sites in Newtown, Perkasie

The 2021-2022 state budget includes high school career and technical education grants for Bucks and Montgomery County Schools of Technology.

Bucks County Technical High School will receive an estimated total of $ 1,348,878, to be divided among the six school districts that provide its students.

The Middle Bucks Institute of Technology has a planned allocation of $ 617,123 for each of its four school districts.

The budget allocates $ 595,196 to the three sending school districts of Upper Bucks Technical High School.

The Eastern Center for Arts and Technology in Montgomery County will receive $ 402,022 for its eight sending school districts, including Hatboro-Horsham.

For a full breakdown of the state budget and an estimate funding for local school districts, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Education website.