Equity First

East Stroudsburg Area School District!

PLEASE REOPEN YOUR BUDGETS
TO PROCESS REFUND CHECKS
WITH NEW STATE FUNDING
SCHOOL DISTRICTS CAN FINALLY DELIVER SCHOOL TAX REFUND CHECKS
Senator Rosemary Brown Rep. Tarah Probst PA State Rep. Jack Rader Rep. Maureen Madden Kelly Lewis

Equity First Issues Call to Action for School Districts to reopen their budgets for Dollar-for-Dollar Refund checks with new State Funding!

(Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) - Equity First congratulates the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Governor Shapiro for taking the historic first steps to a constitutional school funding system, and delivering tax-relief to long-suffering taxpayers in impacted school districts. In the 2024-2025 State Budget, the General Assembly funded $60 million for Hold Harmless Relief and $32.2 Million for Tax Equity. With these funds, taxpayers in hundreds of impacted school districts can finally get long-awaited tax relief, if their school districts reopen their 2024-2025 budgets and send tax refund checks dollar-for-dollar with new State funds designated for Hold Harmless relief and Tax Equity.

“Congratulations to the Senate and House leaders and Governor Shapiro for this historic budget with record education funding. With this new funding for Hold Harmless relief and Tax Equity, School Districts receiving these funds must immediately reopen their budgets and send tax refund checks dollar-for-dollar with the new State Funds.”

Equity First specifically called out the Monroe County state delegation.

“We want to especially highlight the relentless advocacy of the Monroe County delegation for their work on school funding and school property tax relief. In the State Senate Rosemary Brown, and in the House of Representatives, Tarah Probst, Jack Rader, and Maureen Madden. Thank you!”

With these historic increases in education funding,

School Districts Can Finally Deliver School Tax Cuts

The Department of Education estimates Pennsylvania school districts have over $6.7 Billion in Fund Balances and $2.5 Billion in Federal relief funds as additional reserves.

This list shows the impacted school districts getting Hold Harmless Relief and Tax Equity funding to reduce their tax millage: https://houseappropriations.com/files/Documents/2024_25%20Education%20Spreadsheet.pdf

Implemented in 1992, Pennsylvania's “hold harmless” policy dictated that no school district could receive less basic education funding than it did the year prior. Hold Harmless has crushed taxpayers in fast-growing school districts. Against record national inflation, the General Assembly and Governor Shapiro are providing school tax relief just when it is needed most!

"More than ever, severely impacted taxpayers need tax relief. In addition to national inflation impacting their household income, taxpayers in these impacted school taxes have been forced to pay record levels of school taxes for decades! We call on every impacted school district to re-open their budgets and cut their tax millage dollar-for-dollar with these new funds. We urge County Commissioners to hold the printing and release of school tax bills until school districts pass the tax cuts."

Unless these funds are immediately used for taxpayer relief, these funds will idly sit in bank accounts for 12 months, along with the historic levels of Fund Balances already sitting in school district bank accounts.

Equity First,

Established in 2016 to fight for full funding of the state's Basic and Special Education Funding Formula Laws, Equity First has issued annual budget statements demanding the end of Hold Harmless, showcasing the devastating impacts of hold harmless on fast-growing, and urban school districts.

The example of Monroe County:

Situated 70 miles from New York City, Monroe County Pennsylvania experienced record population growth since 1992. Because hold harmless prevented fast-growing school districts from getting new funding for extra students for 33 years, Monroe County taxpayers pay the highest tax burden in Pennsylvania. Monroe County taxpayers have been punished with the highest property tax burden in the state at 4.73%. Pike County taxpayers pay the 2nd highest at 3.81%, against a state average of 2.57%. Snyder County taxpayers only have 1.51% of their income consumed by property taxes.

The extremely high school taxes in Monroe County have hampered economic development, and new home construction, resulting in soaring housing costs. East Stroudsburg is one of the most expensive places to live in Pennsylvania. Monroe and Pike workers have the longest commutes in America to afford to live in the Poconos. Senior Citizens can’t afford to stay in their family homes.

Equity First Calls on Monroe County School Districts to immediately reopen their budgets and CUT School Tax Refund Checks $12.88 MILLION for long-suffering taxpayers!

Monroe County School District School Tax Relief:

$6,546,464 School Tax Cut for East Stroudsburg Taxpayers

$ 869,599 School Tax Cut for Pleasant Valley Taxpayers

$2,666,603 School Tax Cut for Pocono Mountain Taxpayers

$2,797,396 School Tax Cut for Stroudsburg Taxpayers

Equity First calls for a total of $12.88 Million in school tax cuts for Monroe County taxpayers!

Such action for reopening school budgets is not without precedent. In 2004, Monroe County School Districts re-opened their budgets and reduced school tax millage. Then, Pocono Mountain SD re-opened its budget and reduced school taxes by $2.3 Million. ($4,154,055.84 adjusted for inflation) https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/2004/07/08/school-board-votes-to-reduce/51066036007/

Equity First calls on other school districts to deliver tax relief for taxpayers as well, for example:

$1,221,261 - Penn Hills SD Allegheny County

$ 857,454 - West Mifflin SD Allegheny County

$2,812,954 - Reading SD Berks County

$1,012,033 - Coatesville SD Chester County

$2,511,535 - Harrisburg SD, Dauphin County

$1,763,383 - Upper Darby SD, Delaware County

$1,187,853 - Erie SD, Erie County

$2,173,536 - Scranton SD, Lackawanna County

$4,678,214 - Allentown SD, Lehigh County

$1,985,976 - Hazleton SD, Luzerne County

$1,942,468 - Wilkes-Barre SD, Luzerne County

$2,079,244 - Norristown SD, Montgomery County

$1,490,007 - Pottstown SD, Montgomery County

$5,680,897 - Bethlehem SD, Northampton County

$ 680,097 - Dallastown SD, York County

$2,872,960 - York City SD, York County

In praising the General Assembly and Governor Shapiro for this historic first step toward taxpayer relief and fair school funding First Equity also warned this is year one of a seven-year plan. Equity First expressed concern that only $200 million was added to the Basic Education Funding Formula Law, which still leaves more than 80% of Basic Education funding, not running through the Basic Education Funding Law adopted in 2016 with bipartisan support. Equity First said this year’s level of education funding, plus inflationary increases, is needed for another six years to fix Pennsylvania's unconstitutional school funding crisis and provide school tax relief for taxpayers in impacted school districts.

Equity First is an assembly of people sharing information to fully fund Act 126 of 2014 which established the Special Education Funding formula law, and Act 35 of 2016 which established the Basic Education Funding formula law. Simply put, we want Pennsylvania to fully fund the bipartisan-adopted K-12 education funding formula laws. www.SupportEquityFirst.org

Thank You,

EQUITY FIRST

Equity First Support Equity First

I remember visiting the State Capitol a big wow on school funding   Share This Email Share This Email Share This Email   June 2024     When I was young, my mother was a 4th grade teacher. Back then, almost every 4th grade student in Penns

The biggest sin in Pennsylvania education funding is the big walk-away from the 2016 BEF Law. Since the 2016 adoption of the BEF LAW, Pennsylvania has purposely underfunded 150 school districts by over $1.2 Billion every year. That's $9.6 Billion. Now in 2024, despite an Appellate Court Ruling on the unconstitutionality of Education Funding, every proposal walks-away from 8-years of this purposeful underfunding.

Yet, through Forever Hold Harmless, 350 school districts continued to get $1.2 Billion more than the BEF Law allocation, (a dozen districts got $10 million more, every year, unabashedly unabated). You can't make this up.

There should be No More Walking Away.

Because a group of us were concerned the Governor and General Assembly would kick the can, we started Www.SupportEquityFirst.org.

How sadly prescient?

The big walk-away in 2024, is $9.6 Billion that should have gone to the poorest and challenged students over the past 8 years.

The Forever Hold Harmless Coalition can't believe their good fortune, as the Governor's 2024 proposed budget, and the Seven Year Plan advocated by the education establishment Walks-Away from the $9.6 Billion owed to these challenged school districts.

Hard to believe.

Pottstown SD is walking away from over $96 Million owed to their residents from the 2016 BEF Law.

Reading SD is walking away from over $800 million.

Willingly Walking Away from $9.6 Billion owed to them by LAW.

Hard to believe...

Equity First Support Equity First

KICKING THE CAN: PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY GETTING READY TO CRUSH THE STATE’S MOST POOR AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN, AGAIN!

Wow, we can fix I-95 bridges in record time,
but Harrisburg refuses to help the state’s 800,000 poorest students!

Siri: Play loudly, “No More Turning Away,” by Pink Floyd. https://youtu.be/ojf18wT_Xtk

BACKGROUND: Act 35 of 2016, established the Basic Education Funding Formula Law. Act 126 of 2014 established the Special Education Funding Formula Law. These laws were recommended by bi-partisan commissions and were adopted by near-unanimous votes.

The 2023 decision by Commonwealth County Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer confirmed one of our central positions, “students attending low wealth districts are being deprived of equal protection of law.” We applaud the well-written and reasoned ruling!

But wait: Governor Shapiro’s first proposed budget, with a $564.8 million increase in Basic Education, and $103.8 million increase in Basic Education, fails again to match historic inflation, and does nothing to fix the $1.2 billion inequity the funding formula laws were passed to fix.

But wait: Republican leaders have indicated they won’t appeal the Commonwealth Court decision.

BREAKING THEIR OWN LAWS:
Since 2014, and 2016, respectively, instead of immediately sending all state budget allocations through the adopted funding formula laws, the General Assembly and then-Governor ignored the very laws they adopted and kept Basic and Special Education funding the same, except for small annual allocations they directed through the funding formula laws.

As a direct result, 122 school districts have been shortchanged over $7,750,000,000 since the passage of Act 35 of 2016, the Basic Education Funding Formula Law, and Act 126 of 2014, the Special Education Funding Formula Law. $7.75 Billion!

But wait. While this shortchanging was happening that $7.75 Billion went to the 378 school districts already receiving what they were supposed to receive. In fact, 10 school districts are receiving $10 million more a year than they are supposed to receive.
HOLD-HARMLESS:

Since 1992, for thirty (30) years the wickedly named public policy, “hold-harmless” has distorted education funding in Pennsylvania, pitting district v. district, union v. union, and legislator v. legislator!
Hold-harmless has inflicted outrageous school property taxes on taxpayers, robbed senior citizens of their homes, and destroyed the American dream of homeownership for too many Pennsylvanians. Hold-harmless has denied millions of school children the same opportunities that fair funding would provide to all Pennsylvania students. Because hold-harmless severely impacts Black and Latino school districts, some have called, “hold-harmless,” the Jim Crow law of our time.

WANTON DISREGARD:
The General Assembly and then-Governor knew, had reason and information to know, had appropriations and education committee staff that knew, and had constituents actively advocating them to fully fund the basic and special education funding formula laws, yet the General Assembly and then-Governor knowingly continued the hold-harmless regime despite enactment of the basic and special education funding formula laws in wanton and willful disregard of the almost one million school children severely impacted by hold-harmless. At the same time since 2014, predominantly white school districts, benefiting from the extension of hold-harmless, continued to receive more school funding than their baseline figures despite the knowledge, awareness and advocacy group marketing to the General Assembly and then-Governor on these very issues.
Accordingly, we believe the FY2022-2023 budget and/or a State Supplemental Budget must immediately remedy the Commonwealth Court decision, end hold-harmless, and fully fund the education budget as follows:

PROPOSED EQUITY FIRST 2022-2023 BUDGET AND/OR STATE SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET ACTION:

$1.25 Billion Dollars in Basic Education, through the Act 35 of 2016 Basic Education Funding Formula law, proportionally allocated only to the school districts that are still below the baseline for Basic Education. To catch-up every school district to the baseline funding amount!

$200 Million in Special Education, through the Act 126 of 2014 Special Education Funding Formula law, proportionally allocated only to the school districts that are still below the baseline for Special Education. To catch-up every school district to the baseline funding amount!

$300 Million to all 500 School Districts, through the Act 35 of 2016 Basic Education Funding Formula law. Every school district gets an increase through the Basic Education funding formula law.

$7.75 Billion of the Rainy-Day Fund/Budget Surplus, proportionally to the school districts in order to bring every school district to the baseline figure they should have received in every state budget since enactment of the Act 35 of 2016, the Basic Education Funding Formula Law, and Act 126 of 2014, the Special Education Funding Formula Law.

THE RULE OF LAW AND MATHEMATICS:
It’s simple mathematics. If the General Assembly and Governor only distribute new money through the funding formula, and all 500 school districts get this funding, it’s simple mathematics that the underfunded districts will never mathematically catch-up, they will always remain underfunded/below baseline. In facts and figures, since passage of Act 35 of 2016, the school districts that were underfunded/below baseline in 2015, remain underfunded/below baseline in 2023, and it’s a staggering $7.75 Billion of aggregated underfunding.

The same brutal facts and figures are true with Special Education.
The only mathematical way for underfunded/below baseline school districts to catch-up is if, and only if, the underfunded/below baseline school districts receive catch-up allocations to bring them up to or above their baseline figure.

Further, Equity First opposes the $300 million Level-Up funding allocation. Equity First contends the Level-Up funding scheme is against state law, specifically Act 35 of 2016, and should not be used in the FY 2022-2023 state budget or any supplemental state budget fixing Education funding. The $300 million should be proportionally allocated only to the school districts that are still below the baseline for Special and Basic Education funding since 2014 and 2016, respectfully.

An assembly of groups and individuals, Equity First was specifically formed to make sure the General Assembly and Governor fully funded Act 126 of 2014 and Act 35 of 2016.

Simply put, we have painfully witnessed the General Assembly and Governor blatantly underfund 122 school districts by $7.75 Billion Dollars since adoption of the state education funding formula laws.

In broad-daylight since 2014, millions of the state’s poorest school children have been impacted, despite the law.

While we are just an assembly of opinions, we believe constitutions and adopted laws matter.

CONCLUSION:

$1.25 Billion Dollars in Basic Education, through the Act 35 of 2016 Basic Education Funding Formula law, proportionally allocated only to the school districts that are still below the baseline for Basic Education.

$200 Million in Special Education, through the Act 126 of 2014 Special Education Funding Formula law, proportionally allocated only to the school districts that are still below the baseline for Special Education.

$564.8 Million and $103.8 million to all 500 School Districts, through the Act 35 of 2016 Basic Education Funding Formula law, and Act 126 of Special Education Funding Formula law. Every school district gets an inflationary CPI increase through the Basic Education and Special Education funding formula laws.

$7.75 Billion of the Rainy-Day Fund/Budget Surplus, proportionally only to the school districts still below their baseline figure in order to bring every school district to the baseline figure they should have received in every state budget since passage of the Act 35 of 2016, the Basic Education Funding Formula Law, and Act 126 of 2014, the Special Education Funding Formula Law.

Equity First is an assembly for sharing information, research, and marketing to fully fund Act 126 of 2014 which established the Special Education Funding formula law and Act 35 of 2016 which established the Basic Education Funding formula law. Simply put, we want Pennsylvania to fully fund the bipartisan-adopted K-12 education funding formula laws. www.SupportEquityFirst.org

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