News Analysis: Understanding education funding

By William Doolittle
For the Messenger

Monroe County residents, because of their deep 
concern over soaring school populations and the
 resulting property tax increases, need to understand
 the broad context in which school funding occurs.


Peering back to the nation’s beginning, the Founding
 Fathers, in their wisdom, understood that in this
 large, new land one size would not fit all when it 
came to education.
 As a result the founders made no specific mention of 
national control, or funding, of education even though 
they understood education was absolutely necessary 
in a democracy that needs an educated electorate.


These men who were educated at home or in tiny schoolhouses down the lane left the running of schools to 
the states.
The Tenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states,
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the
 Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are
 reserved to the states respectively, or to the 
people.”


That is the only guidance given to the citizens of 
the United States about who is to run their schools. 
In a back-handed manner, the Tenth Amendment reserves the 
power and responsibility of public education systems 
exclusively to the states, by not enumerating that
 responsibility to the federal government.


But, you may exclaim, “My local school board runs the
 schools.” That is true, but only at the sufferance of 
the states, which have gingerly turned many function s
of school operations to local school boards. 
Hawaii runs a single statewide school system. To
 further prove the point that the states are, by law ,
in charge, there have been several instances in the 
past decade when the state took over entire school 
systems, among them Philadelphia, Newark and Jersey
 City.
Through the years, hard-pressed citizens have 
complained that several state methods of distributing
 so-called state aid to local districts is unfair 
because affluent districts are able to draw more money 
per student from property owners than poorer 
districts.

This is the downside of state control,
 because many legislatures are unable to, or unwilling 
to respond adequately to special situations such a s
fast growth.
 According to the state Department of Education,
“Pennsylvania’s school districts receive 57 percent of 
their revenues from local sources and 38 percent from 
the state. The state provides about 25 percent of
(local) general fund budget.”


This is one of the lowest rates in the United States,
 a disgraceful performance, placing Pennsylvania on a
 level with the poorest states in the union. If the 
state provided 50 percent or more of the operating 
budget of local schools, the school property taxes
 might be mitigated.

According to a recent study by the 
Pew Charitable Trusts, Pennsylvania placed 49th of the 
50 states in the state contribution to local school 
operating budgets.


Another misconception is that the federal government
 plays a major role in funding education. Not so. The 
federal government is a minor contributor to local
 school education funding.
 After all is said and done, state legislators are
 completely responsible for educating our children,
 even though the state has “loaned” much of that 
responsibility to local school boards.


Examine for yourselves their poor performance and ask yourselves why 
these people care so little about your child’s education.