Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 28, 2025—Pennsylvania students and schools have benefitted from the state’s first installment of adequacy funding and other recent public education investments, with more staffing and resources that will directly impact achievement, according to a new report by Teach Plus Pennsylvania teacher leaders. Spotlighting seven urban, suburban, and rural districts of varying sizes and geographies across the commonwealth, the report, titled From Dollars to Difference: How Pennsylvania School Districts Are Putting State Adequacy Investments to Good Use, highlights how school districts have invested new state dollars in innovative ways to meet the specific needs of their local communities.
“While we know from research that money matters in education and that districts tend to invest new dollars wisely in evidence-based ways, these concrete, local examples really drive home the impact of new state investments on Pennsylvania students. These aren’t just abstract dollar figures going out to faceless school districts; they’re funding new advanced placement classes for students to pursue future passions, a beloved guidance counselor’s salary, another teacher to lower class sizes in the early grades or tutoring for students who need it. These dollars are sorely needed, they’re being put to good use, and they are making a difference,” said Teach Plus PA Executive Director Laura Boyce.
State adequacy funding comes in the wake of a 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling finding Pennsylvania’s current approach to funding public education unconstitutional. The court ordered the state legislature to devise a solution that would provide all students access to the educational resources they need to “succeed academically, socially, and civically.”
In 2024, the Pennsylvania General Assembly approved a new methodology for calculating a state adequacy gap, which totals $4.5 billion owed to 348 underfunded districts. A first installment of $494 million in adequacy funding to districts—11 percent of the adequacy gap—was included in the 2024-25 state budget. Research has shown that more school funding leads to improved student outcomes and that students perform better when they attend schools that are sufficiently funded.
“For the first time in decades, we’re not just trying to survive—we’re able to plan for the future. The adequacy funding has given us a foundation to build on. … Now we’re building something that can last. … This is what it looks like to do what’s best for students,” said Erie School District Superintendent Brian Polito, who is included in the Teach Plus PA report.
To fully understand what the new dollars meant for students, Teach Plus teacher leaders interviewed superintendents and other school staff in seven school districts around Pennsylvania to collect their stories: New Kensington-Arnold, Erie, Pottstown, Jeannette City, Kane Area, Norristown Area, and Philadelphia. They discovered an array of early impacts in the early months of 2025 after only 11 percent of the state’s adequacy gap has been closed, including improved attendance rates, fewer disciplinary incidents, reduced teacher turnover and vacancies, and increases on school-based assessments. In addition, the Policy Fellows found these commonalities across the seven districts:
- Adequacy funds and other state funding increases allowed districts to make new investments in staffing, instructional materials, professional development, interventions, and new programs that will have a direct impact on student achievement and well-being.
- State education funding increases have helped mitigate the expiration of federal Covid funds in Pennsylvania, allowing districts to avoid the fiscal cliffs, mass layoffs, and program cuts that many districts across the country face.
- While state testing data is not yet available for the first school year in which adequacy funds have reached districts, schools are already seeing early evidence of positive impacts on students in the form of improved attendance, disciplinary outcomes, and formative academic data.
- While the first round of adequacy funding has provided critical resources for historically underfunded districts, more is needed: districts continue to face fiscal pressures from rising cyber charter costs, inflation, additional loss of federal funding, and other mandated costs such as special education. If the state does not fulfill its obligation to close the remaining 89% of its overall adequacy gap in a timely manner and find ways to deliver other funding increases and savings, many districts face the specter of raising local property taxes or cutting programs and staff to make ends meet.
Based on their findings, the Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellows recommend that the General Assembly invest at least $500 million annually in adequacy funding until the remaining $4 billion state adequacy gap is closed, provide a timeline for closing the adequacy gap, and follow through on other state funding increases and cost-saving measures.
Click here for the recording of the webinar announcing the report’s release.
About Teach Plus
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning for students. teachplus.org/pa/
