Pennsylvania School Districts Wait for $1 Billion

HARRISBURG, Penn. — Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration continues to warn that next year’s budget may have an estimated $1.2 billion deficit as a result of a spike in pension payments needed to cover decades of “unfunded liabilities.” At the same time, Pennsylvania school districts are still waiting for $1 billion in funding from the state, and citizens are not happy about it.

On Jan. 16, about two dozen public school officials and one lawmaker gathered in the Capitol to remind the governor and the legislature about the “unfunded liability” of school construction costs as well. The Pennsylvania Department of Education owes about $1 billion to numerous school districts for about 350 state-approved renovation and construction projects, according to The Morning Call.

In 2011, Corbett’s administration cut reimbursement payments by $20 million to $296 million and put a moratorium on approving new projects for reimbursement as part of the PlanCon process until June 30, 2014, unless the legislature extends it. However, public school officials want the money now that the loss of state funding has caused them to either forfeit their own finances, lay off staff or cut programs. It is now obvious that the state approved far more projects in the PlanCon process than it could afford.

State Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, said he will introduce a bill that requires the state to pay districts the money back plus interest, and that the bill would help modernize the 11-step Plan Con process.

The process dates back to a 1973 law meant to discourage costly, elaborate school design plans, and provided for partial reimbursements for new construction only. The poorer the district was the higher the reimbursement it would receive from the state.

In 2005, Gov. Ed Rendell and the legislature increased that reimbursement rate, also giving extra money for LEED-certified school designs. However, those changes resulted in a backlog of payments to the school districts.

Several other school construction projects are underway in the state after gaining approval for reimbursements in 2011, before the moratorium took effect. The state estimates it would cost $1.2 billion to fund the 350 projects seeing reimbursement before the moratorium took effect in October 2012.

With such a large amount of reimbursements due, the PlanCon process will likely not start up again any time soon. As a result, school districts are looking for other government programs to help with construction projects. For example, the Allentown School District got a $3.75 million state grant through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project, funded through bonds.

Because funding has yet to be issued, citizens are starting to protest Gov. Tom Corbett in a variety of ways. The latest: Protestors boycotted the governor outside Central High in Philadelphia when he was scheduled to present the high school with an academic award for high math and reading scores. As a result, the governor never showed up, according to The Morning Call.