In Southeast PA, 9 of 10 districts are hiking taxes

The math is simple. Yet so very hard.

We’re talking about the simple math (figuratively speaking) behind school district budgets. School districts need funding to deliver schools ready for students to succeed. But current funding levels just aren’t enough to do the job. There are two main funding sources for districts: local funding, mostly though property taxes, and state funding.

How are we on state funding? Well, a major lawsuit filed by parents and school districts against the state is currently weaving its way to trial before the Commonwealth Court. The plaintiffs and their supporters, like PCCY, argue that the state is failing its constitutional duty to provide a thorough and efficient education system that all students are entitled to.

Speaker of the House Mike Turzai and other legislative leaders say no such rights exists. That partially explains why PA ranks 47th in the country in state share for education funding.

No need to flog a deadbeat horse. When the state is woeful, we need to think local.

This week, PCCY surveyed Philadelphia and districts in Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, and Chester counties and found 9 out of 10 districts are proposing to raise property taxes to answer the needs of their students.

Predictably, it’s the poorest districts that need the most. In Philadelphia, which is the poorest of the nation’s 10 most populous cities, the Mayor is seeking a 4.1% increase this year to cover rising costs, but facing resistance from the same City Council that demanded the dissolution of the SRC.   

Coatesville Area SD in Chester tops the list with a proposed hike of 8.4%. Bucks County’s Quakertown Community edges Philly with 4.2%. 

Fighting it out for 4th place:

Phoenixville: 3.6%
Southeast Delco: 3.6%
North Penn: 3.4%
Upper Darby: 3.4%

The only option available in the face of chronic state underfunding, however painful, is local tax increases. In Philadelphia, the poorest municipality in the region, there are challenges to education funding.

Of the 500 districts in Pennsylvania, 420 have more money to spend per student than Philadelphia. And the City already delivers the biggest share of local school tax funding—only 12 districts boast higher rates.

While the desperate need for more funding for Philly schools has been firmly established, a new, urgent reason surfaced recently in the pages of the Inquirer, as part of their powerful Toxic City series: decaying buildings are making kids sick, with lead paint flaking from ceilings and damaged asbestos in 80% of schools.    

The dire consequences of failing to close the district’s funding gap of $770 million over the next five years couldn’t be more stark. With the state legislature fully entrenched in their not-me position, the responsibility falls unfortunately, unfairly, but undeniably to City Council.   

The math is simple. Council must increase property taxes to repair school buildings and prevent our students from experiencing deep cuts not seen since the Corbett administration. That’s a hard solution to swallow as weary tax payers, but an obvious one for those who demand better for our kids.

JOIN members of City Council and PCCY on Tuesday, June 5th, 2pm, on the 4th floor of City Hall for a  press conference and stand up for funding Philadelphia schools.