By Joseph Bard, Jim Buckheit, Jay Himes, Nathan Mains, J. Hugh Dwyer
The time has come to treat public education as a bipartisan issue that has benefits for all children, regardless of where they attend school in this Commonwealth.
As state leaders come to Harrisburg to begin the 2014 legislative session on Tuesday, January 7, we need them to work together in the best interest of children in every region of our state. We cannot continue to invest in education for some and not all schools.
It limits our children’s futures and it hurts our state’s economy.
In Pennsylvania, school finance disparities continue to seriously undermine the mission of the state’s public schools. Except for the three-year period from 2009-2011 when education funding was based on the number of students and the additional cost to educate certain types of students, Pennsylvania has not allocated its basic state funding to public schools through a predictable, fair or equitable funding formula since 1991. There is a better way.
Full story: We need to find a formula for school funding success: As I See It Patriot-News Op-Ed, 1/6/14
Joseph Bard is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
Jim Buckheit is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators
Jay Himes is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials
Nathan Mains is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association
J. Hugh Dwyer is Executive Director of Central Intermediate Union 10 and head of the Central Pennsylvania Public School Coalition
