Perhaps the most crucial figure in the 2025 budget is $1.1 billion in new spending for K-12 education.
The funds were awarded after the Court of Common Pleas ruled that Pennsylvania’s current method of funding public schools was unconstitutional, citing inequality between the state’s wealthiest and poorest school districts.
While the general spending bill — the legislative backbone of the budget — determines how much money will be allocated to education in the coming year, another bill tells the state how it can spend those funds: the Public School Code Act.
Code bills are passed along with the budget. While the general spending bill specifies how much money each branch of government gets, code bills more or less specify how those dollars can be spent.
The bill also contains largely individual policies, from a massive new funding formula that would change how money is distributed to Pennsylvania school districts to smaller policy items like allowing schools to get grants to provide menstrual hygiene products.
Here are some of the most crucial points included in this year’s bill:
New financing formula
The most crucial part of the bill, you might say, lays out how more than $526 million in education equity grants will be distributed to Pennsylvania school districts based on factors such as student poverty rates.
Because schools receive such a enormous portion of their funding from property taxes, school districts with lower property values are at a disadvantage.
The $526 million in new funding is intended to close this equity gap and provide additional resources to schools with high levels of student poverty and where more children are taught in a language other than English.
One of the biggest sources of contention between Democrats and Republicans during the protracted budget negotiations has been what data will be used to allocate these funds.
Democrats hoped to operate data provided by school districts themselves, while Republicans wanted to operate data from the U.S. Census.
Rep. Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster), who led the House Democrats’ version of the funding formula, said “schools have a pretty good idea when they talk to these parents whether they’re making $30,000 a year or $300,000.”
He said census data has historically underestimated the extent of poverty.
However, the Republican senators who ultimately won said the data they provided was too hard to verify.
Ultimately, the parties agreed to operate census data.
Democrats have had to make other concessions in the fight over capital funding. In February, Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed spending $872 million to close the capital gap, a figure that Republicans rejected.
Charter School Restrictions
When a student attends a charter school, the charter school receives money that would have gone to the student’s school district. The amount is based on average spending per student in that school district, with a separate formula for students with disabilities.
The code bill establishes a formula for returning some of the money that follows potential students to cyber schools to classic public schools. The budget allocated $100 million for that purpose. It also changes the formula for how much money follows students with special needs, which is estimated to save public schools $34.5 million.
The bill would also force charter schools to include in their ads that they are funded with taxpayer money, a largely symbolic victory for Democrats who have opposed giving public school money to charter schools.
It also introduces new requirements for charter school board members. At least five must be voting members who are not related. Charter schools will also be required to make certain budget documents public.
Grants for safety and mental health
Schools will receive $120 million to provide security and mental health services. Every school will now be required to have a security guard, and the money could go toward funding the position. In addition, those guards could be armed.
Of that amount, $20 million was allocated for grants supporting safety at nonpublic schools and educational entities such as charter schools.
Leftovers and ends
The act also provides funding for policies included in bills introduced through the classic legislative process but never completed by the House of Representatives or the Senate.
That includes up to $3 million in grants that would allow schools to purchase feminine hygiene products. The idea appears similar to one proposed in a House bill sponsored by Rep. Darisha Parker (D-Philadelphia).
Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton) said free tampons could promote “communism” when the bill was debated on the House floor. The bill was never taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Funding for a grant program that would allow schools to lock students’ cellphones during the school day mirrors a bill sponsored by Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster) that passed the Senate but never came to the House.
A public school code bill would allow some school safety and mental health funds to be used to purchase special bags that can be closed during the day so students can put their phones in them — if the school implements a policy banning cellphone operate during the school day.
