Southeastern PA Schools Suffer Under State Funding Formula
Pennsylvania spends $6.1 billion per year on Basic Education Funding for public schools. In 2016, the state implemented a Fair Funding Formula to equitably distribute that money to its 500 school districts — but many districts in the Philadelphia suburbs are receiving millions less than their fair amounts.
For example, Pottstown School District receives just 47 percent of its fair allocation, meaning it was shorted $13 million in 2018-2019. Meanwhile, South Side Area School District in Beaver County receives more than 600 percent of its fair amount. Across the state, 143 districts receive less than their fair allocations, including six in Bucks County, seven in Chester County, 12 in Delaware County and 18 in Montgomery County. The disparity is the result of a "hold-harmless" policy, which guarantees that each school district continues to receive whatever its highest level of funding was between 1991 and 2014 — even if its enrollment has declined and even at the expense of growing and struggling districts.