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When I was young, my mother was a 4th grade teacher.
Back then, almost every 4th grade student in Pennsylvania visited the State Capitol. As soon as we were in kindergarten, my mother brought my twin brother and me on her field trips to the Pennsylvania Capitol. So, we visited the Capitol for five or six straight years with my mother’s 4th grade class.
I remember the Capitol being awe-inspiring then, and to this day I feel the same awe every time I walk into the Capitol building.
I never imagined someday I would be a State Representative, working there for the people of the 189th legislative district. It was one of the great honors of my life.
My parents also led the East Stroudsburg Little League for 30 years. So, I helped out with maintenance, painting, and working the concession stand whenever help was needed. For years, I announced the games on Opening Day and the All-Star games. Being involved in Little League always grounded me around the Little League Pledge:
I trust in God
I love my country
And will respect its laws
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best
Those words always resonated with me. They still do.
After I got out of politics, I tried my best to help people and causes I thought were underrepresented. One issue I never left behind was school funding. It’s a brutal issue in the Poconos.
In 1992 when the General Assembly changed the school funding mechanism, they adopted a policy called, “hold harmless.” Hold harmless means no school district can get less Basic Education funding than they got the last budget year. And while it sounds nice and kind, hold harmless has been brutal to school districts like East Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain, and city school districts.
After 1992, school funding was no longer adjusted for student enrollment, and as new students moved into the Poconos, our school property taxes skyrocketed. In 2002 East Stroudsburg School District added 400 students in the 4 weeks before school started. But the school funding never caught up. As a direct result, taxpayers in East Stroudsburg School District pay school property taxes that consume over 5% of their household income. In other words, taxpayers in East Stroudsburg are paying twice the state average of 2.5% of household income consumed by school property taxes.
For years, a small group of education advocates, former legislators, school leaders, and many elected members of the General Assembly advocated for an official Pennsylvania Basic Education Funding formula and Special Education Funding formula law. To get there, the General Assembly promulgated a Special Education Funding Commission and a Basic Education Funding Commission. Both commissions were bipartisan and recommended the adoption of fair school funding laws.
Act 126 of 2014 established the Special Education Funding Formula Laws.
Act 35 of 2016, established the Basic Education Funding Formula Law.
Everything seemed perfect to finally get fair school funding.
But in the next 7 state budgets, the General Assembly and Governor refused to abandon hold-harmless or fully fund the Basic Education and Special Education funding formulas. For example, in 2016 East Stroudsburg School District was $13.8 million below the baseline they should have received from the adopted Basic Education Funding Law.
Incredibly, 8 years later in 2024, East Stroudsburg School District remains $13.8 million below the baseline they should be receiving from the adopted Basic Education Law.
In other words, absolutely nothing has changed.
For 8 straight budgets, East Stroudsburg was shortchanged by $13.8 million. All told, that’s $96.9 million. $96.9 million would help pay for cyber charter schools, and possibly help reduce tax millage for suffering taxpayers.
Since the 2016 adoption of these two laws, 122 school districts have not received their baseline amounts under these specific laws. These districts have been shortchanged over $7.75 Billion.
It's simply amazing to me.
Republicans, who represent the largest benefactors of hold-harmless school districts, are watching in wonder as Democrats walk away from the $7.75 Billion. Notwithstanding a Commonwealth Court ruling holding Pennsylvania school funding unconstitutional, the Republicans are pulling off a grand slam walk-off home run. It’s one of the biggest legislative victories of the century. Wow!
Democrats, who represent the biggest casualties of hold-harmless school districts, are walking away from the $7.75 Billion that their school districts never received. Holy Pink Floyd, Batman. I’ve never seen or heard anything like this, in all of my 60 years on the planet. Equally Wow!
Ironically the House Democrats recently passed House Bill 2370. While the headlines are huge, HB2370 signifies the official "walk-away" by the House Democrats and the $7.75 Billion baseline amounts that their school districts never received under the school funding laws. I’ll never understand it.
Our beautiful State Capitol sits high above the Susquehanna River, dominating the Harrisburg skyline. Slowly, the crowds will leave, the halls will get quiet, and taxpayers in school districts like East Stroudsburg will still be paying over 5% of their household income in school property taxes with no end in sight.
Kelly Lewis was a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 189th legislative district when the Poconos was one of the fastest-growing areas in the US. Elected with a term limit pledge, he enjoys sitting on his pontoon boat reading about Harrisburg happenings.
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