The call for a fair and reliable funding formula was the focus of a small rally in front of the Media Courthouse on June 11 just as the funding discussion heated up in Harrisburg.

Philadelphia-based non-profit Public Citizens for Children and Youth organized the event that included Ridley School District Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel, Upper Darby Board of School Directors candidate Heather Boyd and actors who performed excerpts from PCCY’s state funding crisis play “School Play” as they prepare for recommendations to be delivered from the Pennsylvania Basic Education Funding Commission that my include such a formula.

“(The legislature) must act now to create a sustainable, equitable and predictable public school funding system to ensure that every student has the opportunity to success, no matter where they live,” said Boyd, an associate professor of history at Delaware County Community College..

According to the commission’s website, the 15-member organization is tasked with “developing and recommending to the General Assembly a new for distributing state funding for basic education to Pennsylvania school districts,” while looking at local tax efforts, relative wealth and local supports as some of the factors.

Slated for release on June 10, the commission pushed their recommendations reporting deadline by a week to “build on the positive and productive conversations” from testimony gathered over the past 11 months.

The state’s funding issues are of national notoriety. The Washington Post has reported Pennsylvania as having the widest gap in school funding between rich and poor school districts in the country.

“Schools experiencing the drastic program cuts are neighbors with schools who have not,” said Boyd “Here in Delaware County, the district is with all the need, and the struggling districts are not miles apart, they are separated by streets.”

Currently, the state contributions to basic education have been hovering about 32 percent for the past 10 years, with local sources making up the rest (federal contributions are nominal). The state contributed half of the funding 40 years ago.

What the commission decides will have to get approval through the state legislature.

Delaware County News Network – June 18, 2015 – Read article online