Reform Special Education Funding
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HB 704 has gotten some press following its approval by the House. Check back for more!
Administrators hope bill will bring fairness to special education
By Amy Crawford
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 24, 2010
A bill that would change the way state special education funding is distributed to school districts was approved by the House of Representatives yesterday, giving hope to administrators who say the system shortchanges districts with the most special needs students.
“This is a good day,” said Ed Maritz, a Sto-Rox school director who has advocated for special education funding reform for more than a decade. “It’s about time that we got some fairness in special education.”
Currently, Pennsylvania calculates subsidies for special education by assuming that 16 percent of students in each district have disabilities. The average is about 15.5 percent, but some districts have much higher numbers.
In Sto-Rox, for example, more than a quarter of students have disabilities. With a budget of about $24 million, the district spends about $3.5 million on special education, only $1 million of which comes from the state.
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Rep. Sturla introduces HB 704
A news brief from the AP was picked up in a few papers; Eleanor Chute from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did a news brief and longer piece; and Brian Wallace at the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal did a longer piece quoting Sturla and Baruch.
Chute’s piece: Proposed bill would change special education funding formula
Wallace’s piece: Sturla: Boost special education
The brief appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the Lebanon Daily News and Lehigh Valley Live – which is the Web site for the Easton Express Times and several other papers in that area.
