Reform Special Education Funding
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One more round of calls should help us win final passage in the Senate!
We need help because Senate Bill 1115 for special education funding and accountability reform is expected to receive two final votes in the Pennsylvania Senate during the week of March 26.
Due to incredible support, SB 1115 passed the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, March 6 in a unanimous vote. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.
The next step for SB 1115 is a vote next week in the Senate Appropriations Committee, and then a vote on the Senate floor. The goal is to send this bill to the House by early April and then achieve final adoption along with the annual budget by June 30. The vote on March 6 was great progress, but obviously we have more work to do.
The Senators need to hear from their constituents in support of SB 1115, before the upcoming votes.
The home district office phone number and e-mail address for the state senators is here – http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address.
E-mail or call this week to your senator’s home district office and leave a message. The senators are in the district this week.
The state budget was finalized on time, much faster than anyone expected. Click here to read ELC’s budget analysis.
State funding for special education was not cut for 2010-11. Every school district will get the same state funding it received in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Your advocacy on House Bill 704 deserves credit for protecting this line item in the budget, which avoided the cuts absorbed by most other programs. Of course, you are well aware that the high inflation rate for many special education services and programs threatens the needs of children even with “flat” funding.
The quick resolution of the budget means that there was not enough time for the sponsors of House Bill 704 to negotiate with the Senate about approving the special education reforms. We will work over the summer so that the Senate can promptly hold hearings and vote on HB 704 in September.
Thank you for hanging in there for a couple of extra months. With your help, we should see our legislation signed into law while the flowers are still blooming in September and before the leaves start falling from the trees.
Check back here for updates during July and August. Click on the links in the right margin to read the summary of the changes made in HB 704 as the House voted to approve the bill in June.
Let us know what else we can do to support your work.
Pennsylvania's funding system for special education is broken and must be fixed this year.
On March 2 and 3, 2009, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees held their annual hearings on the education budget. Disability advocates attended the hearings, along with many other education lobby groups.
Special education was a hot topic of discussion at the hearings. Several Representatives and Senators expressed their opinions that the current state formula (or lack of one) for special education does not provide the resources needed by their local schools. Legislators asked Secretary Zahorchak for his opinion on this issue. He responded by making the following kinds of statements:
(1) The issue of special education funding needs to be studied before the Department can make a recommendation for changing the system. The Department does not have the data it needs.
(2) State investments in early childhood education and core elementary school improvements may lower the demand for special education resources without changing the formula.
Disability advocates and others disagreed with the Secretary’s responses. Pennsylvania’s funding system for special education is broken and must be fixed this year, using a needs-based formula that counts students and considers the resources required for a quality education.
