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Testimony-Task Force on School Cost Reduction, Harrisburg

February 2007

Dr. Gerald W. Kohn

The Harrisburg School District incurs many more expenses meeting the needs of students living in poverty than most other districts in the Commonwealth, due to several inter-related, compounding factors. To put it simply, educating at-risk children in an urban district with an excessively high rate of tax-exempt properties is significantly more challenging fiscally than educating suburban children from districts that are funded by a stable local tax base.

More than 80 percent of children in the Harrisburg School District are living in poverty, based on the numbers of students who participate in free and reduced lunch plans; this percentage is low considering that many eligible students do not complete the applications. Children living in such poverty have extensive needs that are expensive to meet, and the Harrisburg School District has to have many programs in place to address all of these needs, which other school districts do not need to have.

Early Childhood
Nationally, it has been shown that preK provides excellent intervention for at-risk children and introduces them to a positive social and academic environment. Five years ago, the District, partnering with Capital Area Head Start, instituted a preK program that has since been recognized nationally as a model quality preK program utilizing best practices. Whereas it is economically run, it is a costly program due to the high quality elements of the program designed to meet the many needs of the 560 enrolled students. The District spends $5 million per year for this model preK program. The District has been fortunate enough to receive partial funding from grants of more than $3 million per year, but these grants ended this year and no replacement funds are available. Because the District's costs have not been met, this program has accumulated a deficit of more than $4.0 million, and the District's costs continue to rise. Additionally, more than 300 at-risk children are on a waiting list but are unable to be served due to lack of funding.

Why is PreK so important in Harrisburg? Prior to the inception of the Harrisburg PreK Program, children were arriving at kindergarten more than two years behind in vocabulary skills, and equally behind in other skills necessary for the learning environment. Prior to the availability of preK, three- and four-year-olds in the District were watching an estimated 10 hours of television per day, and thus not interacting for significant amounts of time with adults who serve as role models. The results were plain: these children started school significantly behind and never caught up, leading to school failure as well as excessive drop-out rates in later years.

Through the preK program, great strides have been made in language development, academic disciplines, and basic skills for these at-risk children. Penn State and PreK Counts research has recognized the strong advancements in performance of these children, especially those who take part in two years of preK. Assessments have shown progress in spoken language, emergent literacy, mathematics, classroom behavior, social development, and daily living skills.

PreK students are now learning basic life skills such as personal hygiene, social interaction, nutrition, and self-regulation. The program also includes home visits and regular parent-teacher interaction that together increase the stability of the home, strengthen relationships between parents/guardians and the District, and encourage support in the home for learning.

Furthermore, the children in the preK program are provided both breakfast and lunch, providing nourishment as well as social skills to aid in the learning process.

Transportation for the preK program is also expensive. Buses must be monitored and special safety restraints for these young children are required. Although the District has placed preK children in six school-based sites throughout the District, some children must be transported greater distances than would be necessary if every school were able to have a preK program.

Thus, high quality preK must be universally available to all at-risk students and fully funded by the State in order for our students to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Health and Wellness
A prevalent lack of prenatal care presents another significant cost to the Harrisburg School District and other districts. Children born with health problems due to lack of adequate prenatal care require additional support as they reach school age. Lack of parental support for these children's challenges continues due to a high percentage of single-parent families in which mothers on welfare are out of the home due to recent changes in the working requirements for families on assistance.

One of the most prevalent challenges is lack of adequate dental and medical care for children due to the lack of providers who will accept uninsured children or children on medical assistance, which pays providers less than other insurers. Nearly 50 percent of the children screened in preK-3 and grade 7 have been found to have untreated cavities due to lack of regular dental care (the national percentage of tooth decay in children hovers at 25 percent). The District now provides, in addition to dental screenings, sealants and treatment for minor cavities, in order to prevent painful and distracting dental health related problems. Again, this program is supported by outside funding that is time-limited and will soon end. The State must provide full funding for basic dental care for all at-risk students if we expect them to succeed and for the District to meet AYP.

Although children are required to have their immunizations before they can register with the District, immunization issues continue to be a problem, particularly with the children of immigrants whose uncertain citizenship status often causes parents to avoid reporting for immunization services. To compensate, the District offers catch-up programs for immunizations and has recently instituted a pilot medical health program that screens for medical problems in general and provides education on health issues. This program is another funded by grants from private organizations - time-limited grant money that will soon end. Again, the State must provide full funding for medical health programs for at-risk children if we expect them to succeed, and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Because the student living in poverty in urban settings does not receive regular medical care, the District's nurse/student ratio is in keeping with the ratio proposed to be a standard on a national level: one nurse per every 750 students. Most districts maintain a ratio of one nurse per every 1500 students, as currently required by law. In the Harrisburg School District, there is nurse coverage in every building, due to a high level of children who come to the nurse's office hungry, cold, or with problems associated with asthma, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. The chronic physical health problems of the urban child living in poverty demand extra services from the Harrisburg School District. Again, the State must provide full funding for a 1:750 ratio of nurses to at-risk children, if we expect our students to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Children living in poverty also have a higher incidence of mental health issues. The high percentage of HSD children needing counseling has led the District to provide school-based, licensed psychologists to provide counseling and therapy services. The District has put in place a social and emotional learning curriculum with the intent of addressing as many of these issues as possible before they surface. Interventions are also necessary for this population. The State should provide full funding for counseling and therapy services for at-risk children if we expect them to succeed and for the Harrisburg School District to meet AYP.

Lack of proper nutrition is yet another health problem confronting the child living in poverty in an urban district. It has also been shown that urban students often are not provided three daily meals if they are not attending an extended day or summer program. Harrisburg School District food services have noted a much higher food consumption rate on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings, which supports the assumption that students are not being adequately fed at home. The State must provide full funding for meeting the nutritional needs of at-risk children if we expect them to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

The District offers extended school day and extended school year opportunities for students partially in order to provide additional meals for students who otherwise would not receive them. The State must provide full funding for extended day and extended year opportunities for at-risk students if we expect them to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Additionally, homelessness is a chronic problem in the Harrisburg School District . Each year, approximately 500 District students become homeless, and that does not reflect the additional 500 students estimated homeless but not reported to the District (about 10 percent of the student population). Homeless students require an array of additional services from the District, from mental health and guidance services to additional social workers. Additionally, these students typically require remedial learning services. The State must provide full funding for the additional needs of homeless children if we expect them to succeed.

Finally, students who have been in adjudicated placements, as well as students who have been in mental health placements, require a variety of remedial services before they can be reintegrated with their peers. The State must provide full funding for these at-risk students if we expect them to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Security
Urban districts need higher levels of security, which is costly. School Resource Officers are no longer funded but continue to be necessary in the schools. Because of the high percentage of students who have been in adjudicated placements, the Harrisburg School District must provide 12 police officers and 38 security personnel (a staff increase of 50), house 11 probation officers in the schools, and offer extensive remedial services, all of which leads to higher costs in terms of facilities and employee hours. The State must fully fund the costs of meeting the needs of these at-risk students if we expect them to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Urban children are more likely to be arrested and adjudicated because of lack of supervision at home (single parents out working to meet the work expectations for receiving assistance) and the incidence of crime in their neighborhoods. The responsibility for dealing with the problems of these students most often falls upon the District. The State must fully fund programs assisting these at-risk students if we expect them to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Charter Schools
Urban districts have a growing higher percentage of charter schools, which can become a significant drain on the budget. The Harrisburg School District has been paying in excess of $3 million per year to charter schools, as well as an additional $70,000 for transporting District children to charter and private schools. Many more students now attending cyber charter schools would otherwise be attending private schools or would be home schooled without cost to the District. The State must fully fund these added expenses to local districts if we expect districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Special Education/ESL
Urban districts have a much higher percentage of children identified as needing special education services and ESL services. On average, these costs increase the per student cost by 90 percent. School districts receive State funding based on enrollment, regardless of the number of students in each district who are eligible for special education services. The Statewide average of students per district eligible for special education services is just under 14 percent, but Harrisburg School District 's percentage of students eligible for special education is 20 percent. The State must fully fund these services if we expect districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Tax Exempt and Delinquent Properties
Due to the location of the State Capitol in Harrisburg , 48 percent of the property in Harrisburg is tax-exempt, presenting a huge challenge to the budget and a significant burden on the remaining taxpayers. Other districts in the region have a tax-exempt property rate of between 8 and 12 percent. In addition, the delinquent rate on taxed properties is approximately 15 percent in Harrisburg, as opposed to a zero to three percent rate in neighboring districts. Harrisburg School District cannot depend on revenue from local taxes or an increasing tax base, which other districts incorporate into annual increases. The loss to the District due to delinquent taxes is more than $8 million per year. The State must offset these losses if we expect our students to succeed.

Aging Infrastructure/Facilities
The Harrisburg School District has in the past five to six years renovated nearly every facility, which had suffered from prior decades of neglect and lack of maintenance and updates. As a result, the District now incurs a debt service for these repairs and construction of approximately $15 million per year, or approximately 12 percent of the budget. This figure compares to zero to five percent of the budget for debt services in most districts. The State must fully fund the costs of construction and repair if we expect districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Mandates by the Commonwealth
In Pennsylvania, several mandates negatively affect the budgets of school districts. One such burden is that districts must pay State pension costs, or 50 percent of the employer contribution. A second is that local school districts are required to pay for non-public school transportation, which in the Harrisburg School District results in additional annual costs.

Another burden on the Harrisburg School District and others like Harrisburg has been the required prevailing wage on construction projects. The Harrisburg District agrees that the prevailing wage requirement should continue but that the PlanCon reimbursement from the Commonwealth to the District should be 100 percent to pay for these increased costs, as opposed to 20 percent, if we expect our students to succeed and for districts like Harrisburg to meet AYP.

Summary
In summary, it is clear that Harrisburg School District incurs greater expenses due to the needs of its student population, and has fewer resources at hand due to the poverty level of the families in the District and the extraordinarily high percentage of tax-exempt property in the District. From meeting the basic needs of very young at-risk children to providing transitional and remedial services to those who have been out of the system, from caring for the youngest among the population who need multiple services in order to arrive at Kindergarten ready to learn to preventive measures designed to keep adolescents in school and on-track, from providing health and dental services to supporting through mental health services the high number of students who need that support, from security needs to deferred maintenance and building construction costs, districts like Harrisburg have to address more challenges than most and struggle on their current budgets to do so. The Harrisburg School District has relied heavily on outside funding to meet many of these needs and when they end, so do these greatly needed services.

Since the Mayor took over the District, graduation rates have improved by 93 percent, enrollment is up by more than 30 percent, the number of students going on to college has increased by 324 percent, and dramatic improvements are being realized in standardized tests. These advances could not have been accomplished without the funding necessary to support those programs that have enabled previously underserved children to move toward reaching their potential. Only by continuing these many programs and services can progress continue in the Harrisburg School District and many others like Harrisburg.