The representative of State Steven Malagari (D-Montgomery) speaks during the hearing of the Committee for Funds in Pennsylvania in the education budget of the Education Department on Monday, February 24, 2025 (photo of House Democrats)
The loss of federal funds for public schools in Pennsylvania would be “like a catastrophic”, said the secretary of education Carrie Rowe on Monday.
The obligation of President Donald Trump to break away from the US Education Department among some members of the Committee for Home Funds during a full -day hearing on the request for the expenses of Governor Josh Shapiro.
Rep. Steven Malagari (D-Montgomery) asked what an impact would have if Trump observed the threat, noting that while 7.4% of the budget of the Education Department came from federal sources, this is an even greater share for some individual school districts.
“Financing helps our most sensitive students and maintains many of our programs,” said Rowe, who nominated Shapiro last week become his next education secretary.
The state receives about $ 1 billion as part of extensive federal programs, which complement local and state financing for students in an adverse situation, education of teachers and English students. He receives another $ 600 million under the Act on the education of disabled people (Idea), which helps districts to pay for individualized educational plans for disabled and talented people.
“If it were suddenly removed from school budgets, it would be catastrophic,” said Rowe, adding, when installing Malagari, that this would probably cause increases in local education tax.
Rep. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny) asked if education officials were preparing to raise the public education system if the Federal Education Department is eliminated.
Rowe said that Trump’s administration plans to make a department, remains unclear. Although Trump has no right to close the department, which would require confirmation by the Congress, he expressed his intention to transfer the education “back to the States”.
In it confirmation hearing At the beginning of this month, Linda McMahon, nominated for the Secretary for US education, said that the so -called title programs will continue to be financed from Congress without reduction, but the idea can become part of another agency.
Rowe said that her department summarizes the points talking to Trump’s administration and is working on determining how much it has financed by federal positions, how their loss will affect the internal department and what lower effects could materialize in schools.
“We absolutely look at it and try to come up with as many possibilities as possible. But I will say that none of them is nice,” said Rowe.
The legislators also asked the duty to advise what to say to voters about how changes in federal financing can affect their children.
“You can start by informing your parents that the values of Shapiro administration have not changed,” said Rowe, adding that nothing has changed in the law that requires schools to provide instructions and resources adapted to disabled students.
“It does not need to be added that if the idea $ 600 million of funds does not affect the state, this would cause irreversible damage, and we would certainly have to have emergency plans to continue to meet the needs of disabled students in this state,” added Rowe.
At $ 19.8 billion, the proposed budget of the Education Department is 4.8% higher than the current expenditure plan. This covers an raise of $ 526 million in order to close about $ 4.5 billion “gaps of adequacy” between the richest and the poorest districts identified after the State Court announced the unconstitutional system of financing education in Pennsylvania.
Republican legislators, in general, supported educational coupons as another solution to aid students in falling schools. Shapiro conducted a campaign to support what Lifeline scholarships were called at that time. But a contract with the Senate with a republican covering $ 100 million on the program in the first Shapiro budget, when Democrats blocked it in 2023.
The later expenditure plan included a slight raise for a pair of scholarship programs of tax relief, which allow companies and people to direct tax liability towards education in a private school. One is only for students in the lowest 5% of public schools.
But Rep. The Grimm Krupa (R-Fayette) charity organization criticized Shapiro for not taking into account the proposal to choose the school.
“In this budget I don’t see many new programs to develop these ideas,” said Krupa. “What does this budget do to learn students from schools that do not work for them and to schools where they can refer?”
The trial took place a few days after the Timothy Defoor general auditor issued the arrangements from the five cyber criminals from the audit, which showed that they showed that has accumulated excessive budget surpluses And he got involved in “unusual” expenses on online schools. Defoor said that aggregated balances of school funds increased by 144% to USD 619 million between July 2020 and June 2023.
When asked about the “intestine reaction” to the audit, Rowe said Rep. Aerion Abney (D-Allegheny) “say that I am something less than extremely worried … it would be understatement.”
This is partly due to the growing number of entries during the Covid-19 pandemic and because the state law of the charter school determines tuition fees based on which receiving districts they spend on a student, and not the actual cost of ensuring only online education. The Shapiro budget includes a proposal to determine the tuition Cyber Charter in a nationwide base of USD 8,000 per student. This would save school districts around $ 378 million, says Shapiro’s plan.
Rowe said that in the report educational officials were aware and brought Shapiro’s proposals regarding the reforming tuition with a cybernetic charter, said Rowe. She added, while Cyber Charters have an crucial question that maintaining budget reserves is cautious, their reserves as a percentage of their general budget are about four times four times in school districts in the whole state.
“It seems to me that tuition of $ 8,000 will not hurt cybernetic schools … While at the same time it will provide relief to school districts that need it the most,” said Rowe.
