{"id":31331,"date":"2025-11-11T19:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31331\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T19:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:10:07","slug":"pennsylvania-state-budget-deadlock-hurts-school-districts-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31331\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania state budget deadlock hurts school districts\u2019 finances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania lawmakers say a state budget could be near \u2014 potentially with more funding for districts like Philadelphia\u2019s. <\/p>\n

But the budget is already over four months late. And that\u2019s caused significant financial harm to districts across the state.<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia, the state\u2019s largest district, the school board authorized the district to borrow $1.55 billion<\/a> in September to make up for missed state payments that would have come through if lawmakers had adopted a budget by the July 1 deadline. <\/p>\n

If the district ends up drawing down the entire loan, interest payments will cost the cash-strapped district around $30 million, according to district officials. That\u2019s equivalent to roughly 200 teacher salaries in a district with ongoing teacher shortages. <\/p>\n

Some smaller districts are delaying payments to charter schools<\/a> and pausing after school programming<\/a>. Others have said they will have to shut down<\/a> if there is no budget deal soon.<\/p>\n

At a Philadelphia Board of Education hearing last week, Board President Reginald Streater said the district had to continue to borrow funds to \u201ckeep the lights on and continue making the payments we have to make under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, it has drawn down $585.5 million of the loan to make up for the missing state funding, according to district spokesperson Naima DeBrest. The loan agreement requires the district to pay that money back within the same fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The strain on districts\u2019 budgets comes as lawmakers argue over what the future of education funding should look like in the state. How the state divides money between districts is one of the key issues in this year\u2019s budget negotiations, following a 2023 court ruling that found the state\u2019s school funding formula to be unconstitutional because it left poor districts underfunded. <\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s budget proposal, backed by Democratic lawmakers, would include $200 million more for Philadelphia schools<\/a> as part of a boost to school funding for districts with lower tax bases and higher costs per student.<\/p>\n

But some Senate Republicans, who are in the majority, have opposed that proposal. Republican Majority Leader Sen. Joe Pittman has previously indicated that he opposes the funding formula Shapiro is using<\/a> to determine how much money districts get. (Pittman\u2019s office declined to respond to Chalkbeat\u2019s request for comment.)<\/p>\n

Sen. Vincent Hughes, a Democrat who represents part of Philadelphia, said he and other Democratic senators are \u201cholding firm\u201d on supporting Shapiro\u2019s education funding proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a lot of lifting to make sure that we protect that,\u201d said Hughes. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not done, so we\u2019ve got to keep fighting for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawmakers say Pennsylvania budget deal could be close<\/p>\n

Hughes said he could not estimate when a budget deal may be finalized, but that there had been \u201can increased level\u201d of negotiations over the last several weeks. He said he hoped that recent election results, in which Democrats made gains in several states, \u201cwould have sent a message to our Republican colleagues that their way of governing \u2026 the people don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Lynda Culver, a Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, said she is not part of the negotiation team, but she is hopeful a budget deal could be reached this week. The House plans to return to a voting session on Wednesday, and Culver said the Senate also expected to return to session later this week,<\/a> though no date has been publicized. <\/p>\n

Culver said she wants Shapiro\u2019s education spending proposal to be \u201ctweaked\u201d so that rural districts get more funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a bad thing,\u201d said Culver of Shapiro\u2019s budget blueprint. \u201cI\u2019m just saying it needs consideration for rural Pennsylvania.\u201d She added that education spending is one of many issues she would consider in any budget proposal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s encouraging that lawmakers have fought for more education funding for poor districts, said Dan Urevick-Ackelsber, a senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, a legal advocacy group. Still, he said, Shapiro\u2019s proposal still does not adequately fund higher-needs districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur schools need every dollar that we give them,\u201d said Urevick-Ackelsber, who was involved in the legal case challenging the state\u2019s funding formula that culminated in the 2023 court ruling. \u201cAnd we have set money on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia district officials have urged lawmakers<\/a> to pass a budget that follows the governor\u2019s proposal. <\/p>\n

Without adequate funding, students ultimately suffer, Streater said at the recent Philadelphia board hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been put into a situation where \u2026 our children have yet to get the fundamental rights that they have been granted under our state constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system. Pennsylvania lawmakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16473,37,539,28,30,29,19865,85],"class_list":["post-31331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-capitol","tag-harrisburg","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-secretary-of-state-al-schmidt","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31331","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=31331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}