The School District vampire
The School District of Philadelphia sucked the city's blood last year. And it could happen again.
The School District vampire
This is the fourth installment of the "Philadelphian Horror Story" series, in which we tell you about the monsters lurking in the city's budget.
The School District of Philadelphia sucked the city’s blood last year. And it could happen again.
Since 2001, the city and state have shared responsibility for running and funding the School District.
But last year, after federal stimulus funding ran out and state government didn’t replace it, the District found itself with a $629 million deficit.
In late May, school officials came before Council and asked for additional funding - $100 million, to be precise. Mayor Nutter had proposed a budget that was balanced without any big cuts or tax hikes. But the schools said that without financial help, they’d have to make drastic cuts, like ending full-day Kindergarten. City taxpayers were eventually subjected to their second consecutive property tax hike, and the School District got $53 million extra of the city’s blood.
But if you thought that made the problem go away, well, you don’t know vampires.
The district faces still more deficits - it has a gap of about $26 million between now and June, and a structural gap of potentially as much as $400 million waiting next year, according to the Inquirer.
The Nutter administration has proposed raising about $90 million extra for the district through the city’s property-tax reassessment, but the current bad property tax system may prove hard to kill this year (kind of like a zombie ...)
One of the things the city worries about when it gives the district money is the fact that an increase in School District funding is, um, immortal. When the state took over Philly’s schools, it wanted to prevent the city from skimping on funding. So it banned the city from ever reducing its School District contribution rate (the overall contribution can decrease if the tax base drops, depending on whom you ask). That means if the city increases its contribution to the District during this particularly bad stretch, it could increase that contribution permanently.
Another concern is that the District’s finances have, historically, been allergic to sunlight. Council in particular last year showed reticence about sending more money to the schools without having control or even much clarity about where it was going.
Despite all of this, no one wants to abandon the city’s kids. So if property tax reform doesn’t go through and the School District comes back asking for another bite of the city’s budget, it’s going to be very hard for the city to turn it away.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
Looks like Moveon.org Kingpin George Soros is getting a crony capitalist payback from the Obama Administration. And to think of all the schools in this country that are underfunded and all the children that will go to bed hungry tonight(Isn't that how it's framed when there is Republican in office?)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50163— Phishface- "School District Vampire" title unfair and misleading. Majority of local state school districts are primarily funded by local, not state and federal, revenue. Philadelphians have made a choice to fund stadiums, Comcast office towers, DROP, etc. rather than public education. Non-Philadelphia state voters have made a choice to limit the extent to which they fund, from their perspective, a local responsibility. If City voters want to recover the authority to direct the School District's future perhaps they should look to assuming a majority of the District's expenses. 'He who pays the piper calls the tune.'— j_phila
- What a sham. IF YOU WANT A BETTER EDUCATION SYSTEM YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. TEACHERS, MATERIALS, AND BETTER BUILDINGS, ARE NOT FREE. SUBURBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT DO WELL PAY MUCH MORE IN PROPERTY TAXES.— marcphilly
- This title is very misleading. You blame the budget issues on the stimulus money but that is only part of the reason for the deficit. You don't even say what the graph is illustrating, that the state cut it's funding to the District to what it was in 06-07. Come on now. Haven't we had enough low blows to the district? The posters on this article are right. In most suburban districts the graph is reverse. That's why suburban districts where not as hard hit by the governors cuts to education in his budget. Do your research before throwing more sucker punches to a District that is already down, bleeding, and on life support.— Ambitious Philly Girl
- The real WTF is that the school is sucking up more blood than in previous years, yet has a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. What happened between 2005 and now?— BarryG
