Pennsylvania\u2019s 500 school districts will share $565 million to help fill education \u201cadequacy\u201d gaps and ease higher tax burdens.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers have included supplemental education funds in state budgets since 2024, in response to a Commonwealth Court ruling that found Pennsylvania\u2019s previous system for funding schools violated the state constitution and led to inequity across districts.<\/p>\n
They have, to date, incrementally added more than $1.6 billion in supplemental money over the past three budgets. Like last year, each district was guaranteed at least $50,000 from the total pot, even if they didn\u2019t qualify for either supplement.<\/p>\n
See the full list of allocations below.<\/p>\n
A report<\/a> this year from PA Schools Work \u2014 a coalition of education advocacy organizations that include the plaintiffs in the school funding lawsuit \u2014 found that schools often put the money toward hiring staff, reducing class sizes, offering full-day kindergarten, improving curricula, and expanding career and technical education.<\/p>\n Overall education spending accounts for $23.5 billion of Pennsylvania\u2019s total $50.8 billion budget this year \u2014 though that number uses various accounting maneuvers<\/a> to suppress the total spend. The issue is consistently among the most contentious during annual budget talks.<\/p>\n The Commonwealth Court ruling in 2023 found that students in poorer school districts were not being provided the same standard of education as those in wealthier ones \u2014 largely due to a lack of ability to raise resources.<\/p>\n Subsequently, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers held hearings around the state<\/a> throughout 2023 and 2024 to figure out how to respond to the court.<\/p>\n Their findings led a commission of lawmakers to create “adequacy targets<\/a>\u201d that set a standard amount a district must spend per student. Those targets increase based on certain factors, like poverty and level of English proficiency. Any disparity between that baseline and a district\u2019s actual spending was considered an \u201cadequacy gap.\u201d<\/p>\n The commission\u2019s initial report estimated a $5.4 billion adequacy gap. Republican lawmakers rejected that number, though they ultimately signed off on a 2024-25 budget that began dispensing adequacy money. A budget fiscal note explaining the financial assumptions in that budget said the allocation was based on a $4.5 billion statewide adequacy gap.<\/p>\n Many GOP lawmakers have continued to voice skepticism of the adequacy funding formula during budget negotiations. This year was no different<\/a>.<\/p>\n