Inequity in School Funding
The Pennsylvania Constitution requires the legislature to appropriate funds to provide for a, "thorough and efficient education," for Pennsylvania children. However, the method of funding schools in Pennsylvania means that some children get a more "thorough" education than others.
Consider that in 2004-2005, spending ranged from a low of $6,991.93 per student, to a high of $18,064.14 per student. This disparity in the educational expenditure among districts is so great that Education Week ranked Pennsylvania as among the nine worst states in the nation for ensuring school funding equity.
At the root of the problem is that over the past 30 years or so, the state's share of public education costs has declined from a high of 55 percent to something closer to 35 percent. This low level of state support for public education means that an exceptionally large share of education costs is left to be borne by local taxpayers. High dependency on local property taxes means that the quality of our schools depends on the relative wealth of each individual district, pushing those communities least able to afford it into the highest levels of tax effort without being able to raise adequate levels of school funding.
The result is that funding for our children's schools is significantly unequal across the Commonwealth (PDF). Today, the gap between the highest and lowest spending school districts is $11,072, which translates into an astounding $276,800 per classroom of 25 students.
Although many states face similar problems, most states (over 35) have made attempts to remedy the problem by performing a costing-out study. Read about Pennsylvania's costing-out study.
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