ISSUES ADVOCACY: STATE EDUCATION SPENDING

The Board of Directors supports the following concepts:

• We must ensure that high school graduates are ready for work and ready for college if we want to have the educated and prepared workforce necessary to keep America competitive in the global economy. Increased academic performance is essential for the US, Pennsylvania and Berks County to compete. Pennsylvania is headed in the right direction with the adoption of performance standards that set a goal of 100% of student proficiency in Math and Reading by 2014.

• The Costing Out Study authorized by the Pennsylvania Board of Education evaluated the resources needed to attain proficiency and determined that there is a funding gap of $4.6 billion annually which would represent a 27% increase in funding. The study presents objective, hard data that validates a need for increased spending in K – 12 education.

• The study also confirms that school needs for financial resources vary based upon the level of special education, poverty, ESL (English as a second language) and size within each district. These factors in particular put a tremendous strain on urban schools, like Reading. That increased strain requires both special attention and funding from the state. However, the critical need for increased urban school funding should not come at the expense of the suburban school districts.

• Increased funding from local property taxes is not the answer. The increased funding must come from the state. Given the size of the funding gap, it is prudent to “catch-up” over a defined number of years - balancing fiscal reality with a sense of urgency in retaining a US competitive advantage.

• The business community supports our state legislators and Governor in identifying the appropriate funding resources and improving the distribution formula, and also in holding the schools accountable for performance improvements.