Editorial: Pennsylvania's education funding should be rebuilt

Pennsylvanians have spent years — decades, really — begging the state to find a better way to fund education.

School districts in the Keystone State operate primarily on real estate taxes. An April report from advocacy group PA Schools Work estimates that 84% of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania are inadequately funded because of a lack of state funding.

That is consistent with a Commonwealth Court ruling that points to something everyone already seemed to know: Schools in Pennsylvania aren’t funded fairly. Some schools have well-equipped computer labs and science programs. Others are focused on the bare minimums; one resorted to begging online for paper.

When it comes to building projects, the confusion of a state program could make things even worse.

Pennsylvania partially funded construction or renovation projects for years via PlanCon, a convoluted multistep process that calculated reimbursement of a portion of a new or remodeled school. That program had a moratorium on new submissions in 2012.

A new act was passed in 2019. It is also not accepting applications at this time. Why? Unsurprisingly, money.

“The problem is they haven’t funded it,” said Sherri Smith, executive director for the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. “So, the framework is there, and there’s been a lot of discussion about it. School construction is another big facet of ensuring opportunities for students based on an equitable method of funding.”

Why does this matter? Because school infrastructure is wildly expensive. Ask Hempfield Area School District, where a major renovation project at the high school ballooned by millions between design and bidding.

The high cost of school projects can be catastrophic for district budgets and the taxpayers that fund them. See Penn Hills School District, where construction projects were a big part of the fiscal woes that landed them in “financial recovery.”

Students deserve comparable education and assets whether they are in Tarentum or Fox Chapel, Jeannette or Murrysville. At the same time, the taxpayers deserve consistent, reasonable taxes that don’t shoot up because their district had to take out $200 million in bonds to pay for a building project that once qualified for 25% reimbursement from the state but now doesn’t.

The state has owed Pennsylvanians more than money for a long time. It owes common sense tax reform for education.