Dear POWER Family,
Time to celebrate POWER Interfaith’s WINS on Education Funding!
What WINS you ask?
$525,000,000 in new Basic Education Funding in the largest single year increase in this decade.
ALL of this new money will be DIVIDED FAIRLY according to PA’s Fair Funding Formula.
The LEVEL UP program was funded in the new Budget with $225,000,000. This money goes to the 100 most shortchanged School Districts. The standard used to choose those 100 Districts roughly followed the requirements of PA’s Fair Funding Formula. The LEVEL UP money for each of the 100 Districts is in addition to any other monies allocated within the Basic Education Budget to these Districts.
Counties where POWER Interfaith organizes will get SIXTY-ONE PERCENT of that money equaling $137,199,903.
What does LEVEL UP mean for School Districts where we organize?
POWER Philadelphia:
Philadelphia City SD – $83,910,648
POWER Lehigh Valley:
Allentown SD – $15,173,151
Bethlehem Area SD: $3,807,665
POWER Central Pennsylvania:
Lancaster SD – $3,793,079
Ephrata-Akron SD: $858,865
Columbia SD: $756,783
York City SD: $6,906,831
Harrisburg SD: $5,452,924
Steelton-Highspire SD: $708,852
POWER Metro:
Norristown Area SD: $2,128,836
Pottstown SD: $1,593,427
Chester-Upland SD: $4,864,688
Southeast DELCO SD: $2,111,919
Upper Darby SD: $4,311,242
William Penn SD: $1,986,463
Coatsville Area SD: $1,568,103
Oxford Area SD: $733,681
Bristol Borough SD: $340,411
LEVEL UP would not exist without POWER’s agitation that 100% of the Budget be divided by the Formula. LEVEL UP was the General Assembly’s response last year to Governor Wolf adopting POWER’s demand of 100% Fair Formula Funding. POWER agitated and organized for years and we finally got the Governor to adopt our program. The LEVEL UP plan last year provided $100,000,000 in extra money to 100 School Districts. This year’s LEVEL UP program increases that figure to $225,000,000.
We still have a lot of work to do to get 100% Fair Education Funding in Pennsylvania.
But let’s relax for a moment and realize what we have done.
It would not have happened without us.
In Peace and Solidairy,
Nathan Sooy, Regional Director for Central PA
