On July 11, 2024, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro approved Senate Bill No. 700, now Act No. 55 of 2024 (the “Act”). The Act amends several sections of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949 (the “School Code”).
In Part Four of our School Administrators’ Guide to Act 55, KingSpry’s Education Law Chair Emeritus, John E. Freund, III, Esq., and Education Law Attorney, Sarah Modrick, Esq., LL.M., discuss the provisions regarding state aid for fiscal year 2024-2025.
A Significant Decision in 2023
On February 7, 2023, a Pennsylvania judge found the Commonwealth’s school funding system to be unconstitutional, in William Penn SD et al. v. Pa. Dept. of Education et al.
As a result of the decision, the 2023 Basic Education Funding Commission (the “BEFC”) was established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and charged with reviewing the distribution of state funding for basic education to Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts and providing a report of its findings to the General Assembly.
On January 11, 2024, the BEFC published its final report and made its recommendations to Governor Shapiro, the General Assembly, and the State Board of Education for the restoration of education funding in the Commonwealth.
Student-Weighted Basic Education Funding
Pursuant to Section 2502.56, “the General Assembly finds and declares that the Student-Weighted Basic Education Funding Formula is the result of the work of the [BEFC].”
For the 2023-2024 school year and each school year thereafter, the Commonwealth will pay every school district a Basic Education Funding allocation consisting of the following:
1. An amount equal to the school district’s basic education funding allocation for the 2022-2023 school year; and
2. A student-based allocation.
Amended Formulas
The Act amends the formulas for calculating:
• Acute Poverty Average Daily Membership;
• Acute Poverty Percentage;
• Concentrated Poverty Average Daily Membership for a qualifying school district with Concentrated Poverty;
• Current Expenditures;
• Households;
• Local Effort Tax Index;
• Local Effort Factor;
• Excess Spending Factor;
• Local Capacity Index;
• Local Effort Capacity Index;
• Median Household Income;
• Median Household Income Index;
• Poverty Average Daily Membership;
• Poverty Percentage;
• Qualifying School District with Concentrated Poverty;
• Size Ratio;
• Sparsity Ratio;
• Sparsity/Size Ratio;
• Sparsity/Size Adjustment for qualifying school districts with a Sparsity/Size Ratio greater than the Sparsity/Size Ratio that represents the 17th percentile Sparsity/Size Ratio for all school districts;
• Student-Based Allocation; and
• Student-Weighted Average Daily Membership.
The Future of Education Funding
Although its uncertain whether the Student-Weighted Basic Education Funding Formula will raise the Commonwealth’s school funding system to an acceptable standard of constitutionality, it does signify the General Assembly’s bipartisan efforts to enact reform and bring about fair funding in the Commonwealth.
