34 Districts surrounding PHL pay highest share

The basic skills you learn as a child, thankfully, stay with you your whole life. How to read. How to tie your shoes. How you learn best.

Unfortunately, being denied the opportunity to learn basic skills can stay with you your whole life as well. For many children with disabilities in Pennsylvania, the promise of such opportunities are a cruel pipe dream–and their numbers are growing.

The number of children who need special education services in the Commonwealth are rising, but the state share of funding is declining, according to a new report from the Education Law Center and PA Schools Work, of which PCCY is a lead organization.

From 2008 to 2016, state spending on special education increased by $72 million. But costs increased by $1.54 billion. Of PA’s 500 school districts, 417 — more than 83% — are paying a greater share of special education costs since 2008.

Most voters may be inured to the anemic response of state legislators to the pressing needs of children, but there’s plenty of harm to go around. Children with disabilities surely pay the greatest penalty for the apathy in Harrisburg, but taxpayers get hit too. A staggering 90% of skyrocketing costs are being shouldered by beleaguered districts, meaning districts have had to come up with an additional $20 for every new dollar from the state.

Of the top 34 districts that bear the highest share of special education costs, all but one are in counties surrounding Philadelphia.

Given the lack of special education funding from the state, it’s not realistic to presume the services student receive are adequate. 

Without those opportunities to acquire these basic skills, children with disabilities are far more likely to face chronic unemployment and underemployment as adults, leading to homelessness or institutional placement.

The Commonwealth recognizes not only a moral imperative to provide a free and appropriate public education for children with disabilities, but also a legal one. That’s why state legislators enacted a special education funding formula in 2014.  

But for legislators in Harrisburg, there’s nothing special about special education. The special education formula, like PA’s fair funding formula, applies only to new funding and thus goes largely unfunded.

At least they’re consistent—for anything education related, it’s business as usual. And in Pennsylvania, the business is bankrupt and we’re all on the hook.

If this report frustrates you, join PA Schools Work today and join the fight for adequate and equitable school funding!