Op-Ed: Reform in Harrisburg could have averted teachers strike in Scranton

On Nov. 3, the teachers and paraprofessionals of the chronically underfunded Scranton School District began a strike. No one is happy that it has come to this but, after four years without a contract, and five years without a pay raise, these educators — several of whom I have the honor of working with as Teach Plus policy fellows — are looking for some relief.

Teachers and administrators in Scranton may have differing positions on the contract negotiations, but there is one thing both sides can agree on: all of this could have been avoided had state leaders stepped in earlier to fix our state’s broken school funding system.

Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom in state share of school funding, placing 45th in the country. This leaves many school districts across the state without the resources to educate their students as effectively as they could with adequate resources.

Unfortunately, state legislators seem to be just fine with that, even though more than eight in 10 school districts across the state do not receive their fair share of state education funding, including 277 school districts that are $2,000 per student below where they should be.

Of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania, Scranton ranks 470th in per-student funding, leaving the district more than $4,100 per student short of what is needed for every child to get the education they deserve. The school district has already cut its preschool program, along with funding for libraries and the arts, and the district still lacks the necessary funds to keep schools functioning at an adequate level.

While the one-time federal funding for COVID-19 relief has brought some degree of help to ailing school districts, that funding will soon run out. Once those relief dollars dry up, school district leaders will be back to square one, while increased costs related to COVID will still linger. Communities with a robust local tax base can raise sufficient funding to meet students’ needs, while other communities, like Scranton, simply cannot raise enough money at the local level. The costs of pensions, special education, and charter school tuition (which school districts are required to cover) have been increasing for years while state funding has not kept up. 

What does that mean for students? It means larger classes making it difficult for teachers to give personalized attention to students. It means out-of-date books and technology. It means deteriorating school buildings, insufficient tutoring and guidance opportunities, and termination of music, art, and other programs. 

And what does it mean for teachers? For them, it means trying to prepare students on a shoestring budget. It means buying supplies for students with money from their own paychecks. It means outdated technology in the classroom. It means fewer support staffers and classroom aides. And, unfortunately, it means finding it difficult to make ends meet for their own families because, like the teachers in the Scranton School District, their compensation is another casualty of state underfunding of schools.

The consequences are not exclusive to students and teachers. The effects fall on taxpayers too. For example, in the last eight years, Scranton has raised property taxes five times to make up the ground. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center examined the impact of this failure on the state’s part this way: “As the state fails to provide the adequate support schools need, life gets harder for everyone in the school district.” Since 2016, Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding formula has directed more dollars to districts with higher levels of need. However, only a small percentage of education spending is distributed using the formula, meaning that students in districts with the greatest needs remain deeply shortchanged.

The insufficiencies and unfairness of school funding have been so drastic that parents and school districts have taken legal action, suing the state for a failure to meet the state’s constitutional mandate to “provide a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” The trial in that case started on Nov. 12, but it should not take a court case to give educators the funding they need and their students the right to a good education.

Without immediate and significant action by the state, the overreliance on local tax dollars for school funding and the imbalance between state and local funding will continue to grow. Why is our state forcing these disputes between teachers and school boards when it is sitting on a state surplus and billions of unspent federal COVID recovery dollars? 

It’s high time that we focus on the true cause of school contract disputes in a way that benefits all sides. With adequate state funding, we can give our schools the funding they need to properly educate our kids and to pay some of the hardest-working people in America, all without forcing school districts to raise local taxes. Our children are our future, so let’s prepare them for it.

Laura Boyce is the Pennsylvania Executive Director of Teach Plus, a national non-profit that empowers excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success.