PA’s budget has big increases for K-12 education. How much will Centre County schools get?

Nearly two weeks after the end of the fiscal year, Pennsylvania lawmakers have approved a $47.6 billion budget that includes $1.1 billion in education spending.

The increase marks hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional state funding for Centre County school districts, with local educators saying the budget is a step in the right direction toward fair funding for Pennsylvania’s public schools.

Chris Santini, superintendent for Bald Eagle Area School District, called the budget a “shot in the arm” and the first step after the landmark case regarding the state’s education funding system in 2023.

“We consider it a down payment on getting education funding from the state level to where it should have been all along,” Santini said. “Obviously for years, the state has underfunded their share of school district budgets, especially for districts like Bald Eagle.”

Although most Centre County schools are getting nearly half a million in additional funding, it’s not as much as it may seem when it comes to district budgets, Santini said. Bald Eagle Area’s funds will cover existing expenses and go to debt service to cover the school’s new forestry building and fitness center renovation, he said.

“Unfortunately, though it is a large sum of money, on a $40 million budget it honestly doesn’t even keep up with the current rate of inflation, which is unusually high,” Santini said. “So that money is basically going to be used for the typical raises and salaries and benefits that our teachers and our staff get.”

Randy Brown, State College Area’s finance and operations director, said he will recommend State College Area School District put the money toward its capital projects fund to help pay for the districtwide facility masterplan, which includes the new Park Forest Middle School building .

“Many times we believe that we’ve already fully funded our budget request to the to the best of our ability, and we will then use that money for additional capital and or hold it as contingency in case something arises that we weren’t expecting,” Brown said.

Although the increase is a net positive, Santini said local educators’ work is far from over when it comes to advocating for fair funding and charter reform. A $8,000 cyber charter school tuition cap was originally proposed by Governor Josh Shapiro but was dropped in the final budget.

Despite the new formula for reimbursing public schools, $100 million in charter tuition reimbursement and requiring cyber charters to state that advertising is paid for with taxpayer money, it’s not the changes some Centre County educators were hoping for.

“We’re going to save about a grand total of $72,000, which is a drop in the pocket,” Santini said. “What the legislature should have done is fix the cyber charter law, which is the worst in the country. It is the worst across all 50 states in terms of the amount of money that is being taken from public schools to fund these failing cyber charter schools.”

Here’s a look at how much Centre County schools are getting in basic education funding for the upcoming year.

Bald Eagle Area

Total proposed basic education funding for 2024-2025: $10,139,138

Difference from 2023-2024 school year: $470,929

Bellefonte Area

Total proposed basic education funding for 2024-2025: $10,575,554

Difference from 2023-2024 school year: $320,872

Penns Valley Area

Total proposed basic education funding for 2024-2025: $7,435,637

Difference from 2023-2024 school year: $667,688

Philipsburg Osceola

Total proposed basic education funding for 2024-2025: $14,408,468

Difference from 2023-2024 school year: $575,887

State College Area

Total proposed basic education funding for 2024-2025: $13,100,777

Difference from 2023-2024 school year: $609,206

State College Area also received funds from the state’s “hold harmless” relief, making the total state funds received $1.27 million, Brown said. Hold harmless is a continuation of a 1990s policy that was upheld when the state funding formulas was changed, meaning no district could receive less than it did in the 2014-15 school year, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.