HARRISBURG – Sen. Rosemary M. Brown (R-40) announced today that Pennsylvania is making historic investments in schools, adjusting education funding formulas and building accountability with the recently passed state budget.
“The state education funding increase included in this budget works to enhance education and fairness, provide families with choice through the EITC program, and help alleviate the financial burden on local taxpayers,” said Brown. “As we bring home more dollars from Harrisburg, we can reduce the reliance on local property taxes to fund our schools while still meeting the goal of providing a quality education to our children.”
This year’s budget continues Brown’s successful commitment to education and local tax relief with schools in the 40th Senatorial District seeing state funding increases upwards of 30%. This builds on Brown’s record as a state representative serving Monroe and Pike counties from 2010-2022, where she delivered significant increases in state education funding of 23-79%, depending on district.
“When our school districts prepare their budgets, they rely on a combination of federal funding, state funding and local property taxes. By providing more state funds, we help prevent future local tax increases by school boards and drive the discussion over initiatives to reduce the local school tax burden on households,” said Brown. “My goal and consistent efforts have always been to ensure state funding is appropriate. At the same time, we must be sure school districts are in partnership with me on that mission to reduce the local tax burden, not simply absorb these new dollars into new spending.”
Brown encourages residents to get involved at their local school board meetings, where school spending and school tax decisions originate and many important decisions regarding local education are made. Brown has been a longtime advocate for increased state funding to our local schools to support property tax relief. In 2016, the state enacted House Bill 1552 (Act 35 of 2016), a newly adjusted formula for all new state dollars. The new formula helped drive more dollars to the region, but this budget’s investment should make a tangible difference.
For more information on the state budget, historical school funding data and weekly e-newsletters, visit Brown’s website at www.SenatorBrown40.com.
CONTACT: Mackenzie Mueller