Special Report: Governor's Budget Proposal More Info

Special Report: Governor's Budget Proposal More Info

Feb. 7, 2012

PSBA Special Report: Gov. Corbett’s 2012-13 State Budget Proposal

Today Gov. Tom Corbett presented a $27.14 billion state spending plan for 2012-13, which is more than $20 million below 2011-12. Overall, the plan eliminates 33 appropriations and reduces 164 additional line items. The budget provides $9.05 billion for K-12 education.

The largest increase in the education budget over last year is allocated to pensions. The budget includes $916 million, an increase of $315.8 million, or 53%, for school employees’ retirement costs.

The biggest change is the creation of a new Student Achievement Education Block Grant (SAEBG) – $6.51 billion that consolidates the former Basic Education Funding, Pupil Transportation, Nonpublic and Charter School Pupil Transportation and School Employees’ Social Security line items into one block grant.

The grant includes:
* Basic Education Funding – $5.35 billion
* Pupil Transportation – $542.3 million (including Intermediate Unit
special education transportation funding)
* Nonpublic and Charter Transportation – $77.7 million
* Social Security – $504.8 million to school districts and $36.8 million for
intermediate units

No funding for the current Accountability Block Grant program is included under the new grant. The ABG is entirely eliminated under the proposed budget, representing a loss of about $94 million to districts. The budget documents note that the new SAEBG “redesigns school district funding to support decision-makers and encourage high-performance and cost-effective management.” Decision-making authority would rest with the local school district administrators and school boards who would have more flexibility to determine where the funds are most needed in their district and how to prioritize spending with available resources. However, the budget documents do not provide more detail as to what additional flexibility could be provided to schools.

The allocation for the 2012-2013 SAEBG includes four components:
* Component A-- An amount equal to the Basic Education Funding allocation for student achievement for the 2010-11 school year (fiscal year 2011-2012).
* Component B-- A proportionate share of $504,775,000 based on the payment on account of social security for the 2011-2012 school year.
* Component C-- A proportionate share of $542,255,000 based on the sum of the following:
1) The payment on account of pupil transportation allocation for the 2010-11 school year and
2) The Commonwealth share of payments made on behalf of the school district to intermediate units for the cost of transportation for the 2011-12 school year.
* Component D-- A proportionate share of $77,664,000 based on the payment on account of transportation of nonpublic school pupils and transportation of charter school pupils for the 2010-11 school year (fiscal year 2011-2012).

Click here for district allocations of the SAEBG.

Other specific education items under the governor’s plan are:

* Special Education – Special education is level funded again at $1.02 billion. Click here for allocations.
* Career and Technical Education – $74.5 million; includes employee Social Security costs.
* Keystone Exams -- $15.4 million for implementation and makes these changes:
* Reduces the number of exams to three – Biology, Literature and Algebra I
* Eliminates the requirement to be considered part of a course grade
* Modifies the project-based assessment
* Delays full implementation by two years until 2017
* Pennsylvania School Report Card – $471,000 million for the development and implementation of a new accountability system to assess public school districts and public schools, including career and technical centers, charter school and cyber charter schools.
* Teacher and Principal Evaluation Tools – $3.7 million for a new rating process which includes measures of practice and multiple measures of student achievement.
* Real-Time Data Collection - $1.7 million in state and federal funds to improve data collection and reporting to move the commonwealth toward a “student-centered system of education financing.”

PSBA will provide a more complete budget analysis and reaction soon on its website and in the School Leader News.


Feb. 9: Join PSBA for web conference on proposed budget
PSBA will be hosting a member call on Thursday, Feb. 9 at noon to discuss the proposed 2012-13 state budget. During the web conference, Assistant Executive Director for Governmental and Member Relations Beth Winters will provide an analysis of the proposed budget and what the impact to public education may be if passed. Registration for the web conference is handled by AccuConference, PSBA’s provider of web conference technology. To register for this complimentary event, visit: https://www.accuconference.com/customer/Registration/index.aspx?pkRegQG=bfe66dae-d6e4-4353-82c8-5c4d0d9c760f.