2011-2012 – How the State Cut $860 Million from Pennsylvania Schools
The Governor's 2011-2012 budget cut $860 million in funding for our public school classrooms. No matter how you look at it, the reality is that these budget cuts have consequences. They impact students, teachers and support professionals, and local property taxpayers.
Key budget cuts include:
• Basic Education Subsidy --$420 million cut from FY 2010-2011
• Accountability Block Grants – $154 million cut from FY 2010-2011
• School District Reimbursement for Charter School Costs -- $220 million cut from FY 2010-2011, totally eliminating the program
How Budget Cuts Impact Your School
In 2011-2012, Pennsylvania school district budget cuts ranged from $168,000 to $295 million, with an average reduction of $2.3 million per school district across the state. In 2012-2013, another $100 million is on the chopping block. See what new budget cuts will mean to the Bucks and Montgomery county school districts. And see how these reductions will play out across the state.
Past Investments in Education Have Been Effective
Pennsylvania's public schools are recognized as national leaders in academic achievement. For the past decade, Pennsylvania has invested in programs that have been proven to work for our students. The results are clear.
• The Nation's Report Card - On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, the Nation's Report Card, NO STATES have statistically significant higher 8th grade reading scores than Pennsylvania. Only six states have significantly higher 4th grade reading scores than Pennsylvania. On the NAEP math tests, only seven states have significantly higher 8th grade math scores than Pennsylvania and only four have significantly higher 4th grade math scores.
• Gains in All Academic Categories - The Center for Education Policy cited Pennsylvania in 2010 for recording gains in all academic categories from 2002-2008.
• National and International Comparisons - Pennsylvania students do very well in national and international math comparisons. Pennsylvania's performance ranks above the U.S. average and the averages of 36 of 48 countries in math. It ranked below only that of five Asian jurisdictions (Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Japan).
• Higher Education - More Pennsylvania students than ever (seven out of 10) are going on to higher education.
Budget cuts to programs that work will impact the students we serve and could reverse the dramatic academic gains that our schools have achieved.
Learn more:
• Perspectives on proposed solutions.
• See how the budget reductions will affect local schools.
