Brentwood Borough School District
SUPERINTENDENT’ S
M E S S A G E
BY DR. AMY M. BURCH rentwood Borough SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
In early February, Governor Wolf delivered his budget message to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
The proposed $ 32.9 billion budget plan includes a $ 1 billion spending increase, or 3.1 percent, including increases for education as follows:
• 0 $ 100 million increase in Basic Education;
• 0 $ 40 million increase in Pre-K Counts and Head Start;
• 0 $ 20 million increase for Special Education;
• 0 $ 15 million increase for the State System of Higher Education; and
• 0 $ 10 million for Career and Technical Education
Governor Wolf has remained supportive of public education by his commitment to restore the billion dollar cut from public education budget, enacting a fair funding formula, supporting a 20 % decrease in standardized testing, and establishing computer science standards.
These actions have led to:
• Increasing the number of children able to attend pre-kindergarten by nearly 50 percent.
• Increasing high school graduation rate to 86.1 percent, placing Pennsylvania above the national average.
• 0Increasing the number of career and technical education( CTE) students earning industryrecognized credentials by 32.2 percent and increased the number of credentials earned by students enrolled in CTE programs by 28.4 percent.
54 BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL
• 0Advancing Pennsylvania to third in the nation in
0 the number of nationally-recognized STEM ecosystems and made the commonwealth the fifth largest producer of STEM graduates.
• 0 Expanding enrollment in AP courses by 10 percent.
While we applaud Governor Wolf for his commitment to Pennsylvania’ s future, our schools continue to suffer from years of inadequate and inequitable state funding. The Campaign for Fair Funding has shared that“ the state is simply not paying its fair share: states fund 47 percent of public school costs, on average, but Pennsylvania contributes just 37 percent, among the lowest shares in the country.”
Because Pennsylvania’ s share is so low it has produced a significant shortfall in basic education funding and created a wide divide between rich and poor districts. The Campaign for Fair Funding continues by saying that“ about $ 3 billion in additional investment through the state’ s fair funding formula is needed to give schools the resources they need to educate all students to meet academic standards”.
Sources: http:// fairfundingpa. org / 2018 / 02 / campaign- fair-education-funding-supports-governor-wolfs-k-12- education-budget-increase / https:// www. governor. pa. gov / action-plan-forpennsylvania /# schools