How much remains anybody’s
guess, but two state legislators said school districts will be getting more
money from the state this year, despite losing the $1.1 billion stimulus money.

“There will be additional
funding provided for K through 12 education for public school districts over
and above what the governor had proposed on March 8. The only question is how
much more,” said State Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester.

He added that he’s aiming to
have the budget finished on time this year.

“My goal is to have the budget
done in the second week of June,” Pileggi said. “We don’t want to get near the
June 30 deadline. It might take a few extra days and move into the third week
of June, but we’re well on track to achieve that goal.”

Pileggi made the comment during
his May 12 Senior Expo in Kennett Square. Five days later, state Rep. Stephen
Barrar, R-160, of Boothwyn, made the same type of comment at the polls in
Chadds Ford during the primary election.

“We will vote a budget probably
[May 24], an amended budget that [Gov. Tom] Corbett introduced. What we’re
doing is taking savings, what we feel are wasted programs in welfare and
addressing some of the fraud issues of revenue and welfare, and taking that
money and putting back into education,” Barrar said.

Some of the money will go for
the Social Security reimbursement for teachers and increasing the basic
education subsidy.

“Also, we found $100 million to
put back into the opportunity grants that the school districts have used very
effectively to promote tutoring, full day kindergarten and those types of
programs.”

Barrar said the state would
make up “very little” of the $1.1 billion it’s not getting from the federal
government this year. He also said it was up to the individual school districts
to watch their spending because they knew the stimulus money would not be forthcoming
again.

“The school districts all knew
that that money was a temporary source of funding. It was a two-year gift from
the federal government. …We cautioned the school districts two years ago that
that money was not going to be there. Most of the school districts in the state
have accumulated a sizeable reserve fund and I’m kind of taken aback that none
of them have proposed touching their reserve fund,” Barrar said.

The Garnet Valley School
District has an $8 million reserve fund, according to Barrar, and
Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board President Timotha Trigg confirmed that U-CF
has a reserve of roughly $3.5 million, 5 percent of the district’s $70 million
budget.

Secretary of the Commonwealth
Carol Aichele, speaking at a Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce
luncheon, agreed with much of what Barrar said.

“School districts receiving
that stimulus money would have been wiser if they had spent it on one-time
expenses rather than building it into their bottom line.

Those one-time expenses include
such things as paying down a debt or funding a building project or anything
that is not a recurring expense such as salary. Many of the 501 districts did
just that, Aichele said.

She added that since 80 percent
of a district’s budget goes toward salaries and benefits, that collective
bargaining agreements need to be addressed so that the districts can adapt
better to a changing economy.

“Pennsylvania residents are
willing to pay for good education in this state, [but] they want
accountability. Part of the process is to see that students get the kind of
instruction they need to demonstrate proficiency in their adult years. That’s
why I go back to the idea of management for results. School districts need to
define the results they want for their students, and then manage and budget to
achieve those results,” said Aichele, a former school director in the
Tredyffrin-Easttown district.

She added that the teachers
pension fund, PSERS, would be a problem for the districts now that the state is
backing out and putting the burden on the districts.

“It was over my wild-eyed
objections that the state legislature passed that pension bill in 2001,” she
said. “I predicted at that time that they would not be able to fund it and that
the dollars that would be available for the pension fund would not be able to
fund the obligation.”

Aichele added that the
districts and the teachers unions knew this was coming because they read the
legislation when it was passed.

“The issue is that when
governments make pension promises, they often do it when the market is very
strong, with no expectation that the market will go down…It’s not wise to make
promises during the good times because, surely, the bad times will follow,”
said Aichele.