Schools across Northeastern Pennsylvania are expressing appreciation now that a costly budget impasse has been averted in Harrisburg with an infusion in education funding kept intact.<\/p>\n
The General Assembly adopted a $50.85 billion general-fund state budget Sunday. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the budget into law later the same day.<\/p>\n
The budget includes $19.38 billion in state education funding to be allocated to school districts, community colleges, libraries and other education entities. This figure constitutes 38.12% of all state appropriations and amounts to a 5% increase in education spending, or an increase of $923.72 million over last year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
Specific increases include a 0.7% increase in basic education funding to $8.32 billion; a 3.6% increase in special education funding to $1.58 billion; and hundreds of millions of dollars in continued state funding for school infrastructure, mental health and school safety initiatives, free breakfast and lunch, and vocational programs.<\/p>\n
Scranton Superintendent Erin Keating issued a statement Monday thanking the district\u2019s General Assembly representatives. She said she believed the additional aid would benefit schools historically neglected by the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased with the increase in funding and see it as another positive step toward closing the historic funding gap that has impacted Scranton and other underfunded school districts for far too long,\u201d Keating said.<\/p>\n
While cautioning he still needed to review the details of the budget further, Shenandoah Valley Superintendent Brian Waite issued a statement Monday thanking the commonwealth for providing additional aid to students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful for the continued investment in public education\u2026while recognizing the importance of continuing to close the funding gap so every student has access to the resources they need,\u201d Waite said.<\/p>\n
Closing the \u2018Funding Gap\u2019<\/p>\n
Most of the increase in education funding this year is directed to close that \u201cfunding gap\u201d via a $565 million increase in appropriations for \u201cadequacy funding\u201d to $1.95 billion. Adequacy funding is money disbursed to school districts pursuant to a ruling from the Commonwealth Court in 2023 that ordered the state to increase funding to school districts deemed unlawfully underfunded.<\/p>\n
Greater Nanticoke Area has been one school district to haul in significant benefits from adequacy funding. The district has projected it would receive $7.67 million in adequacy funding and related funds this year, amounting to 15.47% of total district revenue.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued Monday, Greater Nanticoke Area Superintendent Ronald Grevera said the additional funding was sorely needed. He noted that more than four-fifths of Greater Nanticoke Area students are economically disadvantaged and has an increasing number of students who require English language-learning courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investment made by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to our students has been long overdue,\u201d Grevera said. \u201c(But,) we are grateful to both our Legislature and Senate as well as the Governor for getting our budget passed quicker than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The continued investment in education may be particularly helpful to the several growing and diversifying school districts, including Hazleton Area, which is now the sixth largest district in the commonwealth due to surging Hispanic and immigrant populations in the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a district serving a large and diverse student population, stable and adequate state funding is essential to maintaining the programs and opportunities our community values,\u201d Hazleton Area Superintendent Brian Uplinger said in a statement he issued Monday.<\/p>\n
\u2018Real Progress\u2019<\/p>\n
School districts are also thankful to avoid another protracted budget stalemate. Last year, the General Assembly, divided between Democratic control in the state House and Republican control in the Senate, failed to pass a state budget until November \u2013 more than four months after the statutory state-budget deadline of June 30. The impasse arrested the flow of nearly all state funding, leaving public schools to languish amidst months of uncertainty. Scranton schools in particular had to issue a \u201ccomplete spending freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving fiscal clarity at a significantly earlier date when compared to the last academic year is a major plus for all school districts,\u201d Pottsville Area Superintendent Guy Lowery said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n
School officials also said they hoped this budget success would build towards additional education funding in the future.<\/p>\n
Grevera advocated for more special education funding, due to soaring special education costs for districts across the state.<\/p>\n
Keating said there was still more to be done to help all Pennsylvanian students in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made real progress, but there is still important work ahead,\u201d Keating said. \u201cI remain hopeful that the Commonwealth will continue to build on this momentum and fulfill its commitment to fairly fund every public school and every student in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schools across Northeastern Pennsylvania are expressing appreciation now that a costly budget impasse has been averted in Harrisburg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[227,201,182,803,139,28,30,29,50,6056],"class_list":["post-242510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-education","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-rhr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}