School Cost Factors Studied: Change in Way Education Funded in State is Sought.
By Mark Guydish, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Nov. 27–What some advocates consider the best hope for sweeping change in public education funding comes to Luzerne County tonight when those who helped conduct a study to see how much it really costs to teach students what they need to know hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. in Plymouth.
The “Cost Out” study found that, collectively, 12 local school districts need $141 million more a year. Advocates are using the study as a springboard to push the state legislature into changing the way it funds public schools.
The Cost Out study, released Nov. 14, was followed by a separate “Cost Reduction study” released last week. That second study was mandated by Act 1, the state law that promised to use money from legalized gambling to lower homeowner property taxes.
While the Cost Out study said most school districts need a lot more money to do their job, the Cost Reduction study suggested a host of changes in the way schools are run that it contends would save at least $187 million a year statewide, and probably far more.
The Cost Out study found that the current formula used in doling state money is outdated and should be revised based on factors unique to each district such as size and tax base, the number of English Language Learners, special education students, gifted students and students from low-income families.
The Cost Reduction study, on the other hand, looked for ways districts could save money, with many suggestions involving state action.
The Cost Out study was contracted to the private, Denver-based firm of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates Inc., while the Cost Reduction study was done by a task force “composed of representatives of school boards, teachers’ unions, school business officials, and other key stakeholders and experts appointed both by the governor ant the general assembly,” according to the report introduction.
Boiled down, the task force saw potential savings in seven main areas:
Tax collection: Statewide, school districts and municipalities employ 560 tax collectors to gather local earned income tax, and the state has estimated up to $127 million more could have been collected but was not or was lost in the process in a single year. The task force recommends consolidating tax collection and clarifying withholding rules for employers.
Health care: The task force notes health care premiums for school districts statewide increased by 24 percent between 2003 and 2005, and recommends setting up a statewide system for districts to jointly purchase health insurances, a move that is already running through the legislature in the form of House Bill 1841.
Construction and facilities: Although a small part of school district budgets, this can have a huge impact when a new school is needed. Dallas School District is currently hammering out plans for a new high school that could cost nearly $40 million and force the board to borrow to the district’s state-set capacity. The task force suggests increasing the limits of various state-set thresholds for construction-related expenses, giving districts more flexibility in awarding contracts, and helping districts construct environmentally friendly buildings that may cost more initially but pay for themselves in reduced heating and electricity costs.
Special education: One of the fastest-growing expenses, special education and gifted education costs have shot up 97 percent in eight years, more than three times the Consumer Price Index the task force used for comparison, and far faster than the 35 percent growth of regular education. The task force suggests a new state reimbursement system more closely tied to the actual cost for each student, more early education spending to catch and correct learning problems early, and more effort to move students capable of the work into regular classrooms.
Transportation: Statewide, this costs about $1 billion and the task force suggests eliminating a state-mandate that districts transport private school students living within their boundaries up to 10 miles beyond those boundaries. Instead, districts would only have to transport private school students to schools within district boundaries, and only on days the school district held school.
Charter schools: Arguing that the current system of paying charter schools — a complicated per-student formula based on what it costs to educate a student in the district where the charter school exists — the task force suggests revamping that formula for both physical “brick and mortar” charter schools and Web-based “Cyber charters.”
Shared services: Contending that many services are duplicated from district to district, the task force suggests sharing centralized services such as “planning, research, development, evaluation, information, staff and data processing.”
Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Jeff Namey said he had seen an earlier version of the cost reduction report, and that it had been discussed by area superintendents who try to meet monthly to discuss various shared topics.
Namey said the report he saw raised numerous questions among the superintendents as to how the proposed savings plans would actually be implemented, and that they were looking for added clarification.
To read the reports:
If you go:
www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed for the cost out study
www.pde.state.pa.us/k12_finances for the cost reduction study
What: Public meeting on the state “cost out” study on education
When: 7 tonight. Where: Wyoming Valley West Secondary Center auditorium, 150 Wadham St., Plymouth.
Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7161.
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