State Senator Frank Farry\u2019s reaction to the governor\u2019s proposal echoed the official Republican response, implying that the governor\u2019s budget would somehow take money out of taxpayers\u2019 pockets. In Senator Farry\u2019s words<\/a>, \u201cI will remain committed to protecting taxpayers, while \u2026 ensuring our children have access to a great education\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n This statement harkens back to a response that he gave in 2022 to a question<\/a> about the top priorities facing his district, when he claimed:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI want to continue to fight for more money for our local schools so the burden of property taxes can be relieved, and our kids have the resources they need to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n But while Senator Farry\u2019s words have been consistent throughout his tenure in his current seat, his actions have often stood in opposition to those remarks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Consider the fact that in the past budget cycle, Senator Farry voted twice for senate sponsored budget legislation that included no increases to remedy those 363 underfunded Pennsylvania school districts. Not only did these senate budgets defy the 2023 Commonwealth Court order that declared Pennsylvania\u2019s public school funding system to be unconstitutional, and required<\/a> the state\u2019s General Assembly, Governor, and education officials to work with the petitioners to ensure that all students have access to a \u201ccomprehensive, effective, and contemporary\u201d education; but his senatorial district encompasses two of the most severely underfunded school districts in the state<\/a>: Bensalem and Bristol Township.<\/p>\n To understand just how substantial the problems are in these school districts, consider the following graph, which compares the Bensalem Township and Bristol Township school districts with the 148 fully funded districts in Pennsylvania.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The PSSA test measures proficiency in English language arts, math, and science in the elementary and middle school grades, while the Keystone exam measures proficiency in algebra, biology, and literature in high school.\u00a0In each subject, the percentage of students in fully funded school districts who are performing\u00a0at least proficiently is far greater than the percentages in the underfunded districts.<\/p>\n When presented with these facts, however, the typical Republican\u00a0response<\/a> has been that the state is running a fiscal deficit and simply does not have the money for such an investment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But Republicans have refused to consider procuring significant revenues from alternative tax sources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Regulating and taxing skill games (though, to be fair, Senate Republicans have proposed taxing skill games at 36%, 18% below Democratic proposals) and legalizing marijuana are just two possibilities. Currently we allow companies to extract coal, oil, and gas free of charge in Pennsylvania. While energy rich states like Utah<\/a> and Texas<\/a> have augmented their government surpluses with severance taxes, Pennsylvania politicians are happy to give these assets away for free, even if it means impoverishing the state treasury.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ: State Senator Steve Santarsiero: How a Bell-to-Bell K-12 Cellphone Ban Bill Took Shape<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Comparison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Comparison_Farry-1.png\"\/)
![\"Comparison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Comparison_Farry-1.png\")
<\/p>\n