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 .
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• 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