HARRISBURG — Warren Hudak’s analysis of today’s high school graduates was unforgiving: They hop from job to job, lack people skills, and cannot handle criticism.
“This is what we are given,” Mr. Hudak, the owner of an accounting firm, told lawmakers and others at a hearing last week. “These are the students that are applying for our jobs. It is frightening what we are doing to our children.”
Mr. Hudak’s remarks, delivered Thursday to Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding Commission in Cumberland County during the ninth in its marathon series of 11 hearings, were just the latest attention-grabbing testimony the panel has heard as it prepares to make recommendations to fix the state’s education funding system.
One early witness said an additional $6.2 billion a year is needed statewide to give all students a fair shot at success. Others described shutting down school buildings on hot days for lack of air conditioning, and still others told of senior citizens being taxed out of their homes by rising local property taxes to fund schools.
The commission voted Thursday to push back the deadline for completing its report, from Nov. 30 to Jan. 11. Its leaders, Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, and Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, said recommendations would be delivered to Gov. Josh Shapiro in time to be incorporated into his February budget proposal.
The panel’s 10th hearing is scheduled for this Thursday in Bedford, and the final “wrap-up hearing” is scheduled for Nov. 16 in the Capitol. The commission — 12 lawmakers and three members of the Shapiro administration — will then have less than two months to produce a report.
Looming in the background is a Commonwealth Court judge’s ruling earlier this year that the current funding system is unconstitutional.
Ms. Phillips-Hill said it would be “pre-decisional” to discuss her top priorities for the report. She noted that “we are not statutorily charged to address” the Commonwealth Court case, but said commission members want to make recommendations for creating a fair, equitable, and accountable funding system.
Extending the deadline, she said, was a move to support that goal.
Asked about the testimony of Mr. Hudak, Ms. Phillips-Hill said it illustrated the second of two general themes the commission has heard: a desire for more school funding, and for more accountability. She said education is “a child’s platform to their future success.” The commission, she said, must try to make the platform work whether children use it as a step to college, a first job, or the military.
Mr. Sturla said Mr. Hudak’s bleak description of job applicants illustrated the huge disparity in school district resources. While some are populated by two-parent families with $150,000 annual household incomes, others have many broken families and impoverished neighborhoods where drugs, sex abuse, and shootings are more common.
“Tweaks” to the existing funding formula won’t really change things, he said: What is needed is money.
“We need to have about $6 billion more in funding so these kids have a chance to compete,” Mr. Sturla said.
Not all that money must be injected into the education system next year, Mr. Sturla said. But the first increase must be significant, he said, to dissuade the plaintiffs in the Commonwealth Court lawsuit from trying to compel action by returning to court.
Another Democrat on the panel, Sen. Nick Miller of Allentown, said he wants action to help districts fix and replace aging school buildings. The first year, he said, should include a large down payment followed by annual funding for facilities.
Mr. Miller is in his first year in the Senate and was a school board member in Allentown prior to taking office. Despite the polarized atmosphere in Harrisburg, he believes the group can produce a usable report.
“At the end of the day, you see some meeting in the middle,” Mr. Miller said.
Witnesses on Thursday included Alex Halper of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, who stressed the burden already borne by businesses. About 41% of school property taxes come from rental and commercial properties and often are paid by businesses, he said, and about 36% of an average Pennsylvania business’ tax liability is for property taxes.
“Employers invest heavily in the school system,” Mr. Halper said. “Too often, unfortunately, we find that students may not be adequately prepared for the next phase of their life.”
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: November 6, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: November 6, 2023, 6:21 p.m.
