Supporting our Children’s Education

North Penn and Souderton school districts are two of the finest in the state, and I have worked on their behalf to ensure that they, and the taxpayers who support the districts, receive the state financial support they deserve and need to provide a high quality education to our students.

$14M savings to residents of North Penn school district.

Reimbursement for North Penn Classrooms - Thanks to my work with the state Department of Education, North Penn School District is the only district is the state that is receiving state reimbursement for renovations and at the same is leaving modular classrooms in place.

Following a demographic study by the Pennsylvania Economy League, North Penn School district is in the process of renovating most, if not all, of its schools.  At the same time, most of these schools have modular classrooms in place.  The demographic study revealed that the present student population will decline in about four or five years, so the board decided that rather than increase the costs of new construction to include classrooms that won’t be needed in a few years, the modular units would continue to be used for the time being.

Education Department regulations do not allow for reimbursement to school districts that renovate existing schools while not at the same time removing any modular classrooms that do exist.  I was able to work with then-Secretary of Education Vicki Phillips to resolve the matter and obtain a waiver to ensure that the school district—and local property taxpayers—would not lose millions of dollars in state reimbursement.

Increased State Funding – My efforts to obtain additional school funding paid off this year as North Penn will receive nearly $8.3 million from the state, a $280,000 increase, and Souderton will receive almost $7.5 million, a $301,000 boost in funding state basic education money.

I also spoke out in behalf of growing school districts such as ours so that they will get the funds they need as their enrollment increases.  Since  1991-1992 under the Casey administration, the “hold harmless plus” method of distributing state aid has been insensitive to changes in enrollment in our school districts. 

As a result, school districts with growing student populations have been shortchanged as to state aid per student.  Increased student enrollment necessitates the addition of classroom space and new buildings, but state aid is not keeping up.  Making this formula fair to school districts such as ours will be a continuing goal of mine in Harrisburg.