Poverty driving state funding shortfalls, as high as $10,000 per student, in NEPA schools
Oct. 6—HANOVER TWP. — Stained ceiling tiles serve as a reminder of heavy rainfalls at Lyndwood Elementary — and the need for more state funding.
The Hanover Area School District reopened the building two years ago, placing preschool and kindergarten in the quiet Luzerne County neighborhood as other schools reached capacity. Now Lyndwood is over capacity, too.
New data shows that for the state to adequately fund districts in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, the government needs to allocate an additional $527 million to the 21 school districts.
For some districts, the shortfalls are among the worst in the state. Of the 20 districts statewide with the largest gaps, seven are in Lackawanna or Luzerne counties: Carbondale Area, Greater Nanticoke Area, Hanover Area, Hazleton Area, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre Area and Wyoming Valley West. To adequately fund education, the state, on average, would need to spend an additional $10,155 per student in the seven districts.
Experts say the poverty in those districts helps drive the shortfalls.
The data, prepared by Penn State Professor Matthew Kelly, Ph.D., comes as state leaders consider how to comply with February's Commonwealth Court ruling, which found the current system unconstitutional. The bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission gathered testimony this fall, including Thursday in Hazleton, to develop a school funding system that is adequate, equitable and meets constitutional standards.
At Hanover Area, a flourishing industrial park has led to more families moving into the district. Since 2019, enrollment has grown by 10%, to a now-record high of 2,314.
"If we were able to get that money, it would not be a burden to build the space we need," Superintendent Nathan Barrett said. "Every idea we have as a district could be accomplished."
Funding gaps
Most school district funding comes from local property taxes and from the state, and for more than a decade, advocates have pushed for the state to increase its share.
Two years ago, Pennsylvania had the widest funding gap between wealthy and poor school districts of any state in the country, with the wealthiest school districts spending 33% more on each student than the poorest districts. The state continues to provide a much smaller share of total education spending than the national average — 37% vs. 45%.
The gaps have led to higher local property taxes, with districts still unable to meet the challenges of educating growing populations of students from low-income families, English learners and those needing special education services. In 2014, the Public Interest Law Center and the Education Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of six school districts, including Wilkes-Barre Area, asking for a court order to force the Legislature to comply with the state constitution and ensure all students receive access to a high-quality public education.
Kelly served as an expert witness for petitioners in the school funding litigation.
His most recent analysis found that based on the comparison between current spending for each district and its adequacy target identified using the state's own data, measures, standards and goals, 412 of 500 districts spent less than they needed to meet their adequacy target. The median shortfall across all districts is $2,572 per student.
The poorest districts in the state have the lowest funding levels, despite greater needs and lower capacity to generate tax revenue, Kelly found. For example, the poorest 20% spent $6,230 less per student than the wealthiest 20%, according to the data.
Pennsylvania enacted a funding formula in 2016 that better accounts for a district's enrollment and student needs, but only new state funding is distributed via the formula. That means 75% of funding is still distributed based on demographics from the early 1990s, said Maura McInerney, legal director for the Education Law Center in Philadelphia.
The seven Lackawanna and Luzerne school districts with the largest gaps have high enough poverty levels to trigger additional funding through the formula.
Districts with growing numbers of English language learners, and districts experiencing significant increases in enrollment, are being shortchanged, McInerney said.
For example, Hanover has seen a 10% enrollment increase since 2019. Enrollment at Hazleton Area has increased by more than 13%, to more than 13,000, in that period. The number of English learners in Hazleton increased from 2,600 to 3,400 in just the last year.
Students living in poverty need additional resources and support, including math and reading specialists, McInerney said.
"The research is very clear," she said. "There are significant challenges in getting students to reach state standards ... but the important thing is, they can be successful."
Advocates say as state leaders determine how to constitutionally fund education, they must account for the actual needs of school districts.
"Given the vast majority of state aid is not based on the formula weights, these seven districts are not getting the sufficient, adequate amount they need," McInerney said.
Shortfall impact
A fan provided a slight breeze inside a third-floor reading classroom at Northeast Intermediate School in Scranton on Wednesday. The interior temperature of 85 degrees was slightly warmer than the temperature outside. Windows in most classrooms don't open.
After discovering asbestos in the building in early 2020, the Scranton School District eliminated the environmental concerns. But the 1904 building still needs work to modernize it — including adding air conditioning or working windows.
The district, $9,049 behind per student according to the Kelly analysis, left the state's financial recovery designation in January. Additional funds could help the district continue to update buildings and curriculum, much of which has been done recently using federal COVID-19 relief funds, said Patrick Laffey, acting superintendent.
Scranton could also restore programs that had been cut and start new programs to help students, he said.
"It's staggering," Laffey said of the shortfall. "It's even hard to imagine the possibility of funding like that."
Barrett, the superintendent of Hanover Area, wants to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) academy. He also wants to lower class sizes.
Lyndwood is now at 122% capacity, with elementary classes as high as 30 students.
Wilkes-Barre Area, a petitioner in the fair funding lawsuit, cut all kindergarten through eighth grade art classes, family consumer science, industrial arts and laid off every librarian in the district shortly after Brian Costello became superintendent in 2016.
At Kistler Elementary in South Wilkes-Barre, not only do walls have cracks, but several rooms are divided in half with whiteboards and bookcases to accommodate multiple classes. Students who need occupational therapy receive it in a makeshift room that was once a storage closet, Costello testified to the education funding commission last month.
Wilkes-Barre is short $10,470 per student, according to the analysis.
"That means our students need more support than students in most other districts do — intervention specialists, small group learning, guidance counselors, and more — but because state funding is insufficient, and local funding is unavailable, they have less," Costello said.
More than 60% of students in Carbondale Area are classified as economically disadvantaged. While the district has implemented several new programs for students recently, additional money could strengthen and expand those programs, Superintendent Holly Sayre said.
The analysis shows a shortfall of $10,207 per Carbondale student.
"A student at Carbondale should be exposed to the same sorts of opportunities of any student in a well-to-do school," she said.
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