Now is the time for meaningful mandate relief

Dear Governor Corbett:

Last week, you presented to the General Assembly a challenging budget for 2012-13. It reflects the continued concerns related to the economy and the need to carefully select priorities for state spending. Certainly, in times like these, tight budgets mean that difficult choices must be made.

In your budget address, you emphasized that the state's revenues do not match mandated, escalating costs. You proposed the use of block grants to "give school districts the flexibility to adjust to their own, unique needs" You said that "right now, education spending is bound up in a thicket of outdated and time-consuming regulations and mandates."

 Read more

PowerPoint Slides: The Governor's 2012-13 Proposed Budget

Audio Playback: Will be available approximately one hour following the close of the web conference. To access the audio playback, dial: 1.800.920.7487 and when prompted enter the following participant code: *25358326#.

For the second year in a row, public education has been hit with proposed cuts in state funding, under the 2012-13 state budget unveiled by Gov. Tom Corbett. If approved, public school entities would see a nearly $95 million reduction in state aid when taking into consideration elimination of Accountability Block Grant. This would come on top of the nearly $900 million cut public education sustained in last year's budget.

"Our students, our schools and our communities cannot continue to bear the weight of these funding cuts. They are at the breaking point," said PSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel.

 Read more

Supporting Increased State Funding for K-12 Public Education 

Understanding the proposed state budget can be complicated. To help board members, administrators and other school personnel answer the difficult questions community members may be asking about the proposed state budget, PSBA has prepared a special FAQ. Click on the link below to download a copy. (posted 4-5-12)

Talking to your neighbors about school funding 

This was clearly reflected throughout the budget for K-12 education, which provides $9.05 billion for K-12 education. While that reflects a slight increase, funding for the basic subsidy is kept at current year levels, with the bulk of the new money earmarked for rising pension costs. Corbett previously stated that growth in pension costs are among the challenges for the new budget. The budget includes $916 million, an increase of $315.8 million, or 53%, for school employees' retirement costs.

Meanwhile, funding for most other programs in the education budget is contained at current levels, and the plan makes cuts or reductions in other areas. Among the most significant changes under the governor's plan are the creation of a major new block grant that combines the basic subsidy with four other education line items, and the elimination of the Accountability Block Grant program.

New block grant blends basic subsidy, other line items

The new Student Achievement Education Block Grant (SAEBG) is a $6.51 billion allocation that consolidates the Basic Education Funding, Pupil Transportation, Nonpublic and Charter School Pupil Transportation, and School Employees' Social Security line items into one block grant.
Corbett said that the block grant would be used to give school districts "the flexibility to adjust to their own, unique needs." The budget documents note that decision-making authority would rest with the local school district administrators and school boards who would have more flexibility to determine where the funds are most needed in their district and how to prioritize spending with available resources. However, the budget documents do not provide more detail as to what additional flexibility could be provided to schools, or what mandates the governor would like to address.

The SAEBG would collapse four current line items. As described in the Governor's Executive Budget book, funding for the grant includes:

• Basic education subsidy funding ($5.35 billion)
• Pupil transportation ($542.3 million total. This combines $537 million for school districts and $4.3 million for IU special education transportation.)
• Nonpublic and charter school public transportation ($77.7 million)
• Social Security ($541.56 million. This combines $504.76 million to school districts and $36.8 million to intermediate units.)

This combined line item would provide an increase of $21.8 million. However, the increase appears to be directed to social security obligations, since the amounts for the other three components are current year funding levels. With increased social security costs, the grant appears to provide no real increase for classroom costs to districts or recognition of other operational cost increases due to inflation.

The SAEBG for each school district would be calculated using these four components:

• Component A – An amount equal to the current Basic Education Funding subsidy received for the 2010-11 school year (fiscal year 2011-12).
• Component B – A proportionate share of Social Security based on the payment for the 2011-12 school year.
• Component C – For pupil transportation, a proportionate share based on the sum of the following:
  • 1) The payment on account of pupil transportation allocation for the 2010-11 school year and
  • 2) The commonwealth share of payments made on behalf of the school district to intermediate units for the cost of transportation for the 2011-12 school year.
• Component D – A proportionate share based on the payment on account of transportation of nonpublic school pupils and transportation of charter school pupils for the 2010-11 school year (fiscal year 2011-12).

Accountability Block Grants eliminated

Of particular notice is the elimination of funding for the Accountability Block Grant program under the proposed budget, representing a loss of about $100 million to districts. However, this issue has stirred a bit of debate among the education community and the administration.

It has been contended that because the ABG funds were not included as a line item under the 2011-12 budget, the loss should not be considered a reduction under the new 2012-13 spending plan. Nevertheless, funds for the ABG were provided to districts as a result of actions taken by the General Assembly in the final budget negotiations.

During last year's budget discussions, Corbett proposed cutting the ABG, which at that time was set at $259 million. School officials, who were also facing losses of $229 million in charter school reimbursements and other major cuts, urged legislators to continue funding for the ABG. In the end, monies were transferred from Senate & House leadership accounts for a total of $100 million, to restore the program. However, the $100 million was technically not included in the 2011-12 enacted budget; the ABG funds were provided as a retroactive supplemental appropriation funded from 2010-11 revenues.

Under Act 24 of 2011, which amended the School Code to provide for the distribution of state budget funds, language for the distribution of ABG money was included. Language authorizing the ABG is contained in Section 2599.2, and amendments added under Act 24 refer to ABG funds to be received and used by school districts in fiscal year 2011-12. Clearly, the program was authorized and funded in the 2011-12 budget, and the loss of funding in 2012-13 is a reduction to school districts.

Other specific education items under the governor's plan are:

• Special Education -- Special education is level funded again at $1.02 billion for the fourth budget year in a row.
• Career and Technical Education -- $74.5 million; this appears to be a 1.48% increase but now includes employee Social Security costs.
• Pennsylvania School Report Card -- $471,000 for the development and implementation of a new accountability system to assess public school districts and public schools, including career and technical centers, charter schools and cyber charter schools.
• Teacher and Principal Evaluation Tools -- $3.7 million for a new rating process which includes measures of practice and multiple measures of student achievement.
• Real-Time Data Collection -- $1.7 million in state and federal funds to improve data collection and reporting to move the commonwealth toward a "student-centered system of education financing."
• Early Childhood – Funding for Pre-K Counts is reduced to $78.6 million, and funding for Head Start Supplemental Assistance is reduced to $35.4 million.

Programs zeroed out last fiscal year and not restored in the 2012-13 budget include:

• Reimbursement for Charter School Expenditures ($224.083 million)
• Dual Enrollment Payments ($6.8 million)
• School Improvement Grants ($10.79 million)
• Education Assistance program ($47.6 million)
• Science: It's Elementary ($6.9 million)

Keystone Exams requirements scaled back

The budget proposal calls for $15.4 million for implementation of the Keystone Exams and makes some changes to the graduation requirements outlined in the Chapter 4 regulations.

The regulations originally required students to pass a series of 10 Keystone Exams in various subjects in order to graduate, beginning with the Class of 2015. The first three tests were developed for biology, literature and Algebra I. Last year, however, the state put a one-year hold on implementing the exams, and based on the results of the pilot testing phase in 2011, schools were provided an additional year to implement new curriculum standards.

With budget considerations in mind, the governor is now scaling back the original requirements for 10 exams to be created. The plan is to amend the regulations to reduce the number of exams needed to graduate to those three already created, with full implementation delay by two years until 2017. The exams will be revised to be aligned with the new Common Core Standards. In addition, the regulations would no longer require the test results to be considered part of a course grade. The regulations also would modify the requirement for students who cannot pass a Keystone Exam to complete a project-based assessment. The option for school districts to use a state-validated local assessment in place of Keystone Exams would still be available.

PDE puts moratorium on PlanCon construction payments

Another issue worthy of mention in the education budget is the line item for the Authority Rentals and Sinking Fund. This is the money dispensed for school construction projects going through the PlanCon process.

The budget for 2012-13 will provide level funding at $295 million. The administration, however, has indicated that current projects pending approval exceed available resources. There are 230 projects in the pipeline that have not yet been included in funding estimates to date. Projects currently in the pipeline will be funded to the extent funds are available. Further, the administration is proposing a one-year moratorium on accepting new applications.

Call for mandate relief is welcomed

During his budget address, the governor briefly mentioned the need for mandate relief, saying that "right now, education spending is bound up in a thicket of outdated and time-consuming regulations and mandates." He added that "local districts know better how to spend and allocate resources than do bureaucrats in Harrisburg."

While he also called for mandate relief in his 2011 budget remarks, little meaningful action was taken by administration or the General Assembly to reduce the burden on school officials. In these lean economic times, school leaders are working hard to ensure that limited resources are being used to provide students with a quality education. These leaders need flexibility from mandates to achieve student success. The recession has added more students to the national poverty count increasing the number of students eligible for Title I services and creating a greater need for additional resources.

With additional cuts to K-12 education in the proposed 2012-13 budget, there is clearly no room to implement costly programs such as taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers. As budget discussions continue over the next few months, legislators must make key investments in education to help Pennsylvania be open for business and move us forward on the road to recovery.

• PSBA's list: Schools adopting a wage freeze (continually updated)
   

• Budget News headlines
  News stories of interest from statewide news outlets, websites