PSEA is a community of education professionals who make a difference in the lives of students every day.
During a joint session of the General Assembly on Feb. 6, Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled his FY 2024-25 proposed budget, which includes historic investments in public education and a bold plan to revamp the way the commonwealth organizes and funds community colleges and state-owned and state-related colleges and universities.
Shapiro’s basic education plan proposes to increase funding by nearly $1.1 billion and includes several of the reforms the Basic Education Funding Commission recommended in its Jan. 11 report.
The $1.1 billion increase includes $872 million in adequacy and high tax school district payments and $200 million to be distributed through the basic education subsidy formula. In addition, the proposed budget includes $300 million for school buildings and facilities, and a $50 million increase for special education.
Gov. Shapiro’s budget proposal includes a formula aimed at ensuring that every school district has the resources to spend at least $13,704 per student, a key recommendation of the Basic Education Funding Commission’s Jan. 11 report. State funding to achieve this goal would be phased in over seven years.
This includes $736 million for school districts that currently spend less than $13,704 per student.
Another important component of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed $1.1 billion public school funding increase is a tax equity supplement that would provide additional state funds to school districts that have high local tax effort when compared with the rest of Pennsylvania’s school districts.
Under Gov. Shapiro’s proposal, a school district with high local tax effort has local tax effort in the top 34 percent of all school districts. The governor’s proposal, which is based on the Basic Education Funding Commission’s Jan. 11 report, would phase this funding in over seven years.
The PSEA team discusses the high and low points of Gov. Josh Shapiro's Feb. 6 budget address for 2024-25. PSEA President Aaron Chapin, Vice President Jeff Ney, and Treasurer Rachael West are joined by PSEA Government Relations experts Dan Wiedemer and Kelli Thompson to hash over the details of what this budget means for PSEA members.
(24 min. runtime)
