Rendell seeks big raise for schools

Philadephia Inquirer reports:

To address a drastic funding shortage in Pennsylvania's public schools as outlined in a fall report, Gov. Rendell this week will propose the heftiest increase in basic education funding in his five-year tenure.

The money would be distributed under a new formula favoring more challenged school districts, administration sources said.

In his budget address Tuesday, Rendell will ask legislators to raise funding for regular school district spending by 5.9 percent, or about $291 million on top of the nearly $5 billion currently spent, the sources said in an exclusive interview.

The Philadelphia School District, which has a $2.18 billion budget, would receive about $86 million in new basic education funding.

The proposal comes as coalitions around the state rise up to call for more spending on Pennsylvania's 501 public school districts. Such voices have been heard for decades, but are bolstered now by the fall release of the legislature-commissioned "Costing Out" report, which said the state underfunded its districts by about $4.38 billion.

With the nation possibly lurching toward recession, the Rendell plan likely will face intense scrutiny in Harrisburg, even though the administration sources say they can provide the funding without a tax increase through natural revenue growth.

But some question any additional spending.

"It's time for Pennsylvania taxpayers to get value for their dollars," said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for the Republican caucus in the House. "Kids are graduating unable to read, write or do math. More money by itself is not the answer."

On the other side are public-education advocates, who just last week held a rally at a Philadelphia school and called for the Rendell administration to raise basic education funding by $1 billion statewide. The amount of the proposal could disappoint them.

"It should be a significant down payment so that we really stop failing our kids and stop failing ourselves and our future," Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, said after the rally, which drew about 50 representatives of education advocacy groups from around the state.

But the administration sources said this would be just the first step. The governor will call for similar increases in each of his next two budgets until he leaves office in 2011.

Great moments in public education.