Education
Student Funding Reform
Pennsylvania ranks among the nation’s leaders in education spending per student. Although spending levels are high, the system for distributing state funding is outdated. Weighted student funding (WSF) is a…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania State Budget Trends, 2015
The enacted $29 billion General Fund budget (a 1.88 percent increase over 2013-2014) and $71.4 billion total operating budget represent Pennsylvania’s highest spending levels ever—exceeding years when federal stimulus dollars…
Fact Sheet
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School Funding Reform & Weighted Student Funding
Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony to this commission on the important topic of reforming how we distribute state funding for education. Our written testimony will focus on…
Testimony
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Will Higher Taxes and Funding Save Students?
Philadelphia is in the midst of a crisis. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 80 percent of 4th and 8th grade students did not reach proficiency in math and…
Media
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School Spending is the Issue
My letter to the editor in yesterday’s York Daily Record addresses some inaccuracies about education spending in Pennsylvania. Your editorial on education funding (“Funding formula a good…
Media
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Charter School Reform
Good morning, my name is Nathan Benefield; I am the vice president of policy analysis for the Commonwealth Foundation. I wish to thank Auditor General DePasquale for the opportunity to…
Testimony
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Myth: PA Spends Less on Education
There are many myths circulating about how much Pennsylvania spends on public education. One such myth is that the state government used to provide 50 percent of all revenue for…
Media
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Cyber School Funding in Pennsylvania
Cyber schools currently spend significantly less per student than school districts and only represent about 1% of spending on public education. Discrepancies in cyber school funding are the result of…
Memo
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Attack on Charter Schools Shoddy and Misguided
School districts across Pennsylvania are in a budget crunch, due to a combination of overspending, ballooning pension costs and a loss of $1 billion in federal stimulus…
Media
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