In Pymatuning State Park near Linesville in Northwestern Pennsylvania there is a spillway stocked with thousands of carp so crowded together that the ducks literally walk on the backs of the fish. Children especially are delighted at the feeding frenzy that occurs when stale bread sold at a nearby gift shop is tossed into the water causing an explosive competition for the food.
That is what happened last week in the wake of a Commonwealth Court decision declaring unconstitutional Pennsylvania’s apportionment of K-12 public education tax dollars. The never-satiated education cabal acted like the hungry fish seizing on the ruling as reason enough for state government to toss more taxpayer “bread” into what is already one of the most expensive educational systems in the country.
In the ruling the court held that Pennsylvania is failing “to provide all students with access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.” What the court did not do was mandate additional state expenditures on government-run schools noting “there are reform options beyond financial reform . . . the options for reform are virtually limitless.”
Few would argue with the court’s finding that the education provided by Pennsylvania’s 500 government-run school districts have failed some students, especially those residing in urban school districts. However that failure is systemic, not financial.
State House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler summed up the problem: “Many of our public schools often lack real accountability and have become captured by special interests and bureaucrats who put their needs ahead of the students. Unfortunately many public schools remain reluctant about increasing parental involvement in how their children are educated. In fact some schools have lost their core mission of providing an education and, instead, focus on newer buildings and non-educational endeavors at the cost of meeting standards.”
That the state education cabal has been playing games with funding at taxpayer expense was underscored recently when Auditor General Tim Defoor released results of an audit of a dozen school districts which exploited a legal loophole to raise millions in new taxes without submitting the increases to required public referendum.
Defoor’s audit found the districts hid hundreds of millions of dollars in reserve funds that could have been used to cover costs without raising taxes. And, he warned, there are potentially more districts that have engaged in the same fiscal trickery.
In fact the state’s government-run schools are flush with cash. Under former Governor Tom Wolf hundreds of millions of dollars were added annually to the education budget. According to the Commonwealth Foundation state support of public education is up 40% over the past decade reaching an all-time high of $13.3 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
We rank eighth in the nation for total public school funding. COVID-19 relief funds also plumped up school district revenues by hundreds of millions.
That the disparities found by the court continue to exist despite this exponential increase in funding underscores the judge’s opinion that more dollars are not the answer to the problem.
Flushing more dollars down the public education rat hole would actually contribute to two looming fiscal disasters. Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity recently warned that despite the fact the state’s budget is current on solid ground, a “fiscal cliff” awaits lawmakers by fiscal year 2025-2026. The Independent Fiscal Office has also warned that a “shrinking labor force due to an aging population and outmigration of younger workers could turn the current budget surplus into a budget deficit.”
The downturn in the equity markets this past year has put further stress on public pension funds. A recent report by the Reason Foundation ranked Pennsylvania as one of the five states in the nation with the largest unfunded pension liabilities putting us in the dubious company of California, Illinois, and New Jersey.
Summing up the situation, Jennifer Stefano of the Commonwealth Foundation writes: “Commonwealth Court affirmed what the Pennsylvania Constitution said all along: Kids deserve their education to be about a ‘meaningful opportunity,’ not a flawed antiquated system.”
The solution is to halt the unaccountable feeding frenzy by the government-run school cabal until systemic problems are addressed. It also opens the door to “virtually limitless” reforms by creating more school choice options. Those options will truly give students the opportunity to receive a meaningful education and to embark on a future dependent on their individual initiative and ability not on their zip code.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected].)
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