School districts across Northeastern Pennsylvania are breathing a sigh of relief now that the state-budget impasse has ended.
After 135 days of deadlock and an estimated $5.3 billion in lost funding strained local districts, putting some on the verge of drastic austerity or even total shutdown, state funding crucial to schools and students can begin to flow again.
Scranton Superintendent Erin Keating said in an email Thursday she was thankful for the end of the budget impasse and noted that the adopted budget contained significant increases to education funding. According to state budget figures, Scranton received a 1.9% increase in Basic Education funding to around $75 million, along with a 4.6% increase in Special Education funding, and a $9.22 million Ready to Learn grant. During the impasse, Keating ordered a “complete spending freeze” out of fear that the district would be unable to make payroll by the end of 2025.
“We are very pleased to see the state budget impasse come to an end. In addition, we are grateful for the increased level of state funding allocated to the Scranton School District,” Keating said. “This additional investment will have a meaningful impact on our students and represents another important step toward achieving fair funding for historically underfunded districts like Scranton.”
Superintendent Brian Uplinger said Hazleton Area School District had been able to mitigate the effects of the stalemate while ” ensuring that students continued to receive high-quality education and essential services without disruption,” but said he was grateful that an even lengthier delay had been averted. Hazleton Area received a 2.5% Basic Education funding increase to around $71.09 million, along with a 6.8% increase in Special Education funding, and a $12.36 million Ready to Learn grant.
“The finalized budget ensures that Hazleton Area can continue focusing on its mission to provide a safe, clean learning environment with diverse educational opportunities for all students,” Uplinger said in an email Wednesday.
Wyoming Valley West Superintendent Charles Suppon Jr. also reflected on the end of the state budget impasse Wednesday night. Robert Kachurak, the district finance manager, said Valley West was set to receive an approximately $6.7 million increase in total state funding, slightly more than the district had projected and bringing total state funding to just over $55 million in total state aid.
“This decision brings much needed stability and relief and we’re incredibly grateful for our legislators coming together to make education a priority.” Suppon said.
The General Assembly voted Wednesday to adopt a $50.09 billion, amounting to a 4.7% increase over last year’s $47.8 billion in total appropriations. The state House of Representatives passed the budget 156-47 and the Senate, 40-9, with most of the votes against the budget in both chambers coming from Republicans. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the budget into law Wednesday evening.
The budget included $18.46 billion in preschool, primary, and secondary education funding. This amounts to an annual increase of $872.02 million, or 5.0%. It also contained a 1.3% increase in Basic Education funding to $8.26 billion, a 2.7% increase in Special Education funding to $1.53 billion, and 68.4% increase in Ready to Learn block grant funding to $1.38 billion.
While total budget appropriations were slightly less than what Shapiro had laid out in his $51.4 billion budget proposal in February, total pre-k-12 education funding increase in the adopted budget exceeded what the governor had proposed. The state House, which is controlled by Democrats, adopted various budgets around the size of Shapiro’s proposal that kept education funding increases intact. The Senate, which is under Republican control, adopted several budgets that kept funding about level from last year and included few proposed spending increases.
The $1.38 billion Ready to Learn total includes $565.08 million in adequacy funding, which are funds meant to help poorer, disadvantaged, or underfunded school districts. The Governor’s Office news release about the budget said the adequacy formula was changed to disburse adequacy funds more widely to help more school districts.
Wilkes-Barre Area has taken a particular interest in the preservation of adequacy funding. Joining with five other school districts and several civil rights organizations, Wilkes-Barre Area was among the co-plaintiffs that sued the state Department of Education and several other state entities in the Fair Funding case. A Commonwealth Court ruling in that case ordered the creation of adequacy funding.
According to Education Department budget figures, Wilkes-Barre Area is set to receive $17.94 million in Ready to Learn grant funding, which includes $8.39 million in adequacy funding. This comes in addition to increases in Basic education and Special Education funding to give it total state funding of around $100 million.
“This year’s outcome reinforces the progress made through the Fair Funding decision and the shared belief that every child, regardless of zip code, deserves a world-class education,” Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Brian Costello said in an email Wednesday.
While the impasse has ended, some school districts were pushed to their financial limit during the shutdown.
Wilkes-Barre Area was forced to enact a general hiring freeze for non-essential positions and also suspend field trips due to the lack of state funding — something school officials said did direct harm to students.
“While we welcome this renewed investment, future budgets must be passed on time so districts can plan responsibly and deliver the stability our students deserve,” Costello said.
For Northwest Area School District, the crisis of the budget impasse almost proved existential. Superintendent Joseph Long had warned that Northwest Area would exhaust all its funding come Jan. 31 without state aid and that the district would shut down entirely. More problems may lie ahead for the district, which in February reported it was in significant financial distress.
According to state budget figures, Northwest Area is estimated to receive an additional $432,939, or a 4.7% increase, through growth in basic education, special education and Ready to Learn grant funding, along with savings through cyber-charter reform.
“While it doesn’t completely resolve all our challenges, we are actively working on more permanent solutions,” Long said in an email. “We are grateful that the legislators have heard our voices and the voices of our community and are making efforts to support our district and other rural districts.”
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