Apr. 14, 2016
HARRISBURG—Rep. Todd Stephens (R-Montgomery) joined a bipartisan majority of his House colleagues in passing a new Fiscal Code bill 149-45 that sends more money to school districts in the 151st District.
Under
House Bill 1589, the Hatboro-Horsham School District would receive an additional $141,404 for a total of $4,586,733; Upper Dublin would receive an increase of $99,942 for a total of $2,709,592; Wissahickon would receive $73,644 more for a total of $2,442,515; and North Penn would receive an increase of $349,165 for a total of $9,368,863.
“The schools in my district have long been underfunded by the state,” Stephens said. “And while I will continue fighting for additional funding, the funding formula we passed, along with the Senate, will at least bring additional dollars to our schools.”
The new formula was developed by the Basic Education Funding Commission last summer, and it was wholeheartedly endorsed by both Republican and Democrat lawmakers and praised by Gov. Tom Wolf.
Stephens urged the governor to live up to his commitment and use the fair school funding formula to distribute $150 million in additional education funds. Instead, he vetoed the Fiscal Code bill formula and, last week, announced he would use his own formula.
Under Wolf’s funding formula, about half of the new money would go to just three school districts: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chester Upland. While the remaining 497 school districts will still see more funding than they received last year, they will not receive as much as they should have under the fair funding formula.
In total, nearly $5.7 billion in Basic Education Funding is being directed to K-12 schools for the 2015-16 fiscal year under the budget completed by the General Assembly in March. This represents the highest amount of state funding ever for our schools, and it was done without increasing taxes.
Representative Todd Stephens
151st District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: David Foster
267.207.0207
dfoster@pahousegop.com
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