Mixed Messages Making School Budgets A Challenge

By Evan Grossman | PA Independent

Imagine sitting on Santa’s lap and telling him everything you want for Christmas. Then, imagine Santa removing his beard and telling you, don’t count on it.

In a way, that’s what’s happening in Pennsylvania.

In one ear, school superintendents hear Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration ask how they would spend the biggest education investment in state history.

In the other, they hear House Republicans warning them to craft conservative budgets, telling them not to count on additional funding.

It’s quite the conundrum.

“For small districts like us, it’s unbelievably difficult, to say the least,” said John Kurelja, superintendent of the tiny Warrior Run School District.

In a letter to the state’s 500 districts, acting Education Secretary Pedro Rivera called on superintendents to submit plans by May 15 regarding how they would implement massive new education spending.

That leaves House Republicans, who have yet to approve new funding streams, aghast.

“This process demands a high level of analysis and collaboration,” Sen. Lloyd Smucker, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said of the ongoing budget talks. “This letter, issued so early in the process, is premature and the antithesis of that spirit of cooperation.”

School budgets are due before the summer and the state budget, which proposes $400 million in additional basic education funding, won’t be ratified until later in the year.

In an open letter to the governor, House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, questioned Wolf’s authority to require districts to spend time and resources planning how they would use an unfunded budget.

“Requiring school districts to develop a plan to implement dollars that have not even been appropriated is just plain wasteful, not to mention lacking legal authority,” they wrote.

Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan told Watchdog that Republicans are “playing political games,” and the governor would have asked superintendents to come up with a spending plan regardless if his budget proposed “one dollar or $400 million.”

The 1,571-student Warrior Run School District operates a $20 million budget, about half of which comes from state funding; the other half is from local taxes. Under Wolf’s proposed budget, the rural district would receive an additional $339,416 in basic education funding for 2015-16.

If the district were to appropriate funds and not get them, it would probably raise local taxes to pay the bills.

Philadelphia, the state’s largest district with 137,674 students, could receive an increase of $159 million in state funding if Wolf’s budget is ratified. Philly schools face an $80 million deficit. Mayor Michael Nutter promised them $105 million through local tax hikes.

But neither the state nor the city budgets have been approved, so the district can’t count on that money. Philadelphia schools must have a budget in place by May 31.

“Every fiscal year the school district faces the same challenge,” district spokesman Fernando Gallard wrote in an email. He said Philadelphia schools typically estimate costs and, later in the year “the budget is amended.” Conversely, Kurelja said small districts like his can’t operate “on the fly” and add programming mid-year.

Massive spending increases like Wolf has proposed are unique, making this year’s budgets stickier for school officials. Education has also become increasingly politicized, adding another layer of uncertainty.

“Acting Education Secretary Rivera is a former superintendent, so he understands the process,” Sheridan said. “He understands how burdensome it is if Harrisburg put last-minute directions on school districts. Right now they are already in the planning process of how to spend funding and this is why he, at the direction of the governor, sent this letter.”