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Joining Vast Majority Of States, Pa. Adopts School Funding Formula

School building
Lindsay Lazarski
/
WHYY

Pennsylvania will soon join the overwhelming majority of states that have a student-based formula for distributing state education funds.

Both the House passed the measure with a large majority Wednesday. The Senate did so last week.

For much of the past 25 years, the state has largely divided it's main pot of education money based on the principle that districts should never get less than the prior year.

Over time, because the state didn't track real-time changes to enrollment, poverty levels, and other factors, this has created huge inequities — favoring districts that have lost enrollment but have not had to endure requisite funding decreases.

Read the full version of this reportat Keystone Crossroads' websiteKeystone Crossroads is a new statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.

Kevin McCorry reports predominantly on education for the Keystone Crossroads project.
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