NEWS VOICES
Welcome to News Voices, a weekly feature where members of the WVIA News team will talk with each other — and sometimes sources — about key things we've learned in recent stories we have been working on.
Today, WVIA News' Roger DuPuis and Sarah Hofius Hall talk about the funding challenges facing rural school districts in Pennsylvania. This is a transcript of their conversation as it aired on WVIA Radio.
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ROGER: You're listening to Morning Edition here on WVIA Radio. I'm Roger DuPuis, and this is News Voices. Today I'm here with WVIA News reporter Sarah Hofius Hall, and we are going to talk about education funding for rural school districts in Pennsylvania. Sarah, hello.
SARAH: Hi, Roger.
ROGER: One of the things in your recent story that really struck me is that even though the Shapiro administration has made significant strides in funding K-12 education across the state, historic amounts have been poured into the system over the last two years for rural districts, that money just isn't enough. And I wonder if you could talk about why.
SARAH: So the governor in his '25-26 budget proposal included $526 million in adequacy funding and an additional $75 million in basic education funding. That stems from a 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling about fair funding for school districts. The case was first filed more than a decade ago, and the court did rule that the way Pennsylvania funds schools was unconstitutional. So for the last couple years, the state has tried to put more money into the most underfunded school districts.
ROGER: And while I know they were not all urban districts, it does seem the majority of them were, correct?
SARAH: A lot of them are urban districts, and some of the more rural, smaller school districts — especially here in Northeast and Northcentral Pennsylvania — they feel like they're being left behind. Like, for example, that $526 million in adequacy funding? Northwest Area School District, which is in the northwest corner of Luzerne County, they're not getting any of that. Their basic education funding increase for the '25-26 school year is proposed to be $31,510.
ROGER: And as you and I talked about when you were writing the story, that's potentially less than half a teacher, right?
SARAH: Yeah, the superintendent there, Joseph Long he has formed a coalition of superintendents from throughout the region, who have been talking to legislators, holding town halls, really trying to raise awareness of what kind of decisions they're having to do as small, rural school districts. That could mean eventually, you know, cutting staff, cutting programs, they're already raising taxes and drawing down fund balances just for this next year's budget.
ROGER: Wow. You know, and to come back to comparative numbers, I know the folks in these rural districts from from reading your story, they're not looking to criticize anybody. They recognize that the underfunded districts needed this shot in the arm. But let's talk about how much more Scranton would receive this year compared to how much Northwest Area is supposed to get.
SARAH: So Scranton is about 10 times larger than Northwest but over the last three years, they've received almost $30 million in additional funding, and they've been able to do some really great things with that money. But once again, those small rural districts, they just want to say like, 'Hey, don't forget about us. We don't want to have to cut programs.'
ROGER: Right, because there's not a heck of a lot that you really can do with an additional $31,000 compared to $30 million.
SARAH: That $31,000 doesn't help the district keep up with any of the other increases that they're seeing.
ROGER: What are the district officials in these rural areas looking for the Legislature to do? What are their thoughts on how this could be fixed?
SARAH: They're saying that perhaps one funding formula doesn't work for all 500 school districts. Maybe there needs to be multiple funding formulas, and they're also asking for cyber charter school funding reform.
ROGER: So a great deal of money goes to cyber schools, and that, of course, comes out of the pockets of the public districts, correct?
SARAH: Yeah, it's taxpayer money. When a student who lives within your school district opts to go to a cyber charter school, the district pays the tuition.
ROGER: And if I'm not mistaken, state Senator Rosemary Brown, who's from Monroe County, is proposing legislation that would address that issue, correct?
SARAH: Yeah, her legislation would be that if a district has an in-house cyber program, they wouldn't have to pay more than what it costs to educate one student to a cyber charter school.
ROGER: OK. But in the meanwhile, of course, the entire Legislature is looking forward to that July 1 budget deadline date, and we're all waiting with bated breath to see what they do, not just on education, but on the entire funding package. And so we're we're sort of in a holding pattern.
SARAH: Yeah, I think the budget process is pretty complicated this time.
ROGER: And so for all our readers, I would strongly encourage you to read Sarah's story on our website, wvia.org, where she has a really detailed database of what every district in Pennsylvania would receive under the governor's proposed budget.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS ISSUE: Leaders of rural NEPA school districts fear program cuts, layoffs as more funding goes elsewhere
