PA. School Funding is Skewing Towards Wealthier School Districts over time

http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20120304/NEWS01/120309835/education-funding-skews-toward-wealthy-districts-long-term&pager=full_story

Excerpts:

"Since 2008, school districts with a low income population and high property tax rate, like Pottstown, have absorbed up to 10 times more of the $1.5 billion in cuts to state education funding than wealthier districts, according to a study released in the shadow of a state budget proposal which proposes even more cuts for Pottstown.

The study was released by the Education Law Center, a state-wide organization with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that advocates for “Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable children.”
According to their analysis, four of the top five Montgomery County districts wrestling with the biggest disparity are located here in the western part of the county — with Pottstown right at the top, followed by Pottsgrove, Upper Perkiomen and Perkiomen Valley.
Baruch Kintisch, who helped put the study together, said Montgomery County was chosen because it is home to some of the districts which have fared the worst as well as those which have fared the best under what they views as a troubling education funding trend.

Five of the 10 districts with the least loss in state funding per student under Gov. Tom Corbett’s current budget proposal are in Montgomery County, with such familiar names as Lower Merion and Springfield Township. In fact, all but one of the districts faring the best under Corbett’s budget are located in southeast Pennsylvania and read like a who’s who of wealthy locales, including Unionville-Chadds Ford in Chester County and Radnor Township in Delaware County. According to the ELC analysis, these districts also have among the lowest student poverty concentrations in the state. "
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Your Quote of the Day:

“I might want to suggest that if any of us are confused about whether or not education funding has gone up or down since Governor Corbett took office, we could just ask the students ..., the citizens, ... the school districts of Pennsylvania.”

- PA. Representative Steve Samuelson