In Harrisburg today, the Senate Appropriations Committee will take budget testimony from the Department of Education and from the State System of Higher Education.
Governor Tom Wolf has proposed spending $6.4 billion on basic education through the state’s fair funding formula, while asking for another $1.15 billion to offset potential losses to any school district that would see funding decreases lose money by inclusion in the formula. Previously, the formula has applied only to new investments since it was created five years ago, resulting in only a small percentage of education funding actually being subject to it. The rest of education funding is tied to enrollment only, as it has been since 1992.
The governor is also asking for reforms to charter school funding in the commonwealth and minimum $45,000 starting salaries for teachers.
Wolf would fund the increases by raising state income taxes from 3.07 percent to 4.49 percent, but his administration claims that only the top one-third of income-earning residents would pay the increases because of new exemptions and tax forgiveness measures.
The governor has proposed flat funding of $477 million this year for the State System of Higher Education, which is also seeking approval of a five-year, $100 million additional request to fund the State System Redesign.
Senator Joe Pittman is a member of the committee. Today’s budget hearings are the first since last Thursday.
Comments