Pa. budget would help Phila. schools

The future of our city and region depend upon high-quality schools that prepare every student for success in the workplace or college. Ensuring our schools receive the funds they need is the concern of every parent, administrator, teacher, and employer in Philadelphia.

Last week, Pennsylvania passed a budget that includes a financial plan for the School District of Philadelphia. It would provide $140 million in additional government funds this year, and $150 million next year. Together with $133 million in projected savings from a new collective bargaining agreement to be negotiated with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), this package would generate almost $275 million in new revenue and savings for the district, or more than 90 percent of the need projected by Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and the School Reform Commission (SRC).

While the plan is not perfect, it will help Philadelphia's 200,000 students right now. Specifically, the package includes the following key elements in the first year:

$45 million in one-time state funds released to the district after the federal government forgave part of a debt that the commonwealth owed over old foster-care payments.

$15 million in state funds through the basic education subsidy, a slight increase over the original amount proposed in the state budget.

$30 million in city funds through increased collections of delinquent city taxes.

$50 million through a specially authorized loan against future tax revenue from a dedicated portion of an existing city sales tax.

Coming in the second and following years (in order to ensure that this solution is sustainable) are:

$120 million in recurring city revenue to the district from the extension of a 1 percent city sales tax that had been set to expire next June.

$30 million in city funds through increased collections of delinquent taxes.

When the state budget was first proposed by Gov. Corbett this year, it contained $14 million in additional state funds for basic education for Philadelphia (above the existing state subsidy for city schools). In March, the district and SRC made public their budget needs: $60 million more in city funds, $120 million more in state funds, and $133 million in concessions from the PFT.

The School District made this request after executing numerous efficiencies, including closing more than 30 schools, halving the size of its administrative staff, reaching a ground-breaking labor agreement with its blue-collar workforce, and a host of other cost-saving measures. Even then it still faced a budget deficit of more than $300 million, which threatened its very viability and ability to open schools this fall.

While the business community supported the plan by Mayor Nutter and Council President Darrell L. Clarke to tax cigarettes sold in Philadelphia to provide additional funding for schools, there was not majority support for the idea in the General Assembly this year. We still believe this idea has merit. It would create an added source of recurring revenue and free a significant portion of sales-tax revenue for critical city issues such as municipal pension reform. The business and civic communities are prepared to work with the leadership of our city government and in Harrisburg to try to accomplish this objective.

The financial plan that was approved last week is the result of hard work and cooperation among an array of public and private officials, including the governor, the mayor, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.), City Council, and leaders in the legislature, and in the business and civic communities. It is particularly important to note the leadership of Gov. Corbett and his staff, who were committed to finding a solution that would benefit the schoolchildren of Philadelphia.

Is there more hard work to be done? Yes. We remain committed to continuing that work in the weeks, months, and years ahead to execute reforms that close the budget gap and ensure that a quality public education is delivered to every child in our schools.