HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts will share $565 million to help fill education “adequacy” gaps and ease higher tax burdens.
Lawmakers have included supplemental education funds in state budgets since 2024, in response to a Commonwealth Court ruling that found Pennsylvania’s previous system for funding schools violated the state constitution and led to inequity across districts.
They have, to date, incrementally added more than $1.6 billion in supplemental money over the past three budgets. Like last year, each district was guaranteed at least $50,000 from the total pot, even if they didn’t qualify for either supplement.
See the full list of allocations below.
A report this year from the Education Law Center — a Philadelphia-based advocacy group that was involved in the initial lawsuit that led to this funding — found that schools often put the money toward hiring staff, reducing class sizes, offering full-day kindergarten, improving curricula, and expanding career and technical education.
Overall education spending accounts for $23.5 billion of Pennsylvania’s total $50.8 billion budget this year — though that number uses various accounting maneuvers to suppress the total spend. The issue is consistently among the most contentious during annual budget talks.
The Commonwealth Court ruling in 2023 found that students in poorer school districts were not being provided the same standard of education as those in wealthier ones — largely due to a lack of ability to raise resources.
Subsequently, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers held hearings around the state throughout 2023 and 2024 to figure out how to respond to the court.
Their findings led a commission of lawmakers to create "adequacy targets” that set a standard amount a district must spend per student. Those targets increase based on certain factors, like poverty and level of English proficiency. Any disparity between that baseline and a district’s actual spending was considered an “adequacy gap.”
The commission’s initial report estimated a $5.4 billion adequacy gap. Republican lawmakers rejected that number, though they ultimately signed off on a 2024-25 budget that began dispensing adequacy money. A budget fiscal note explaining the financial assumptions in that budget said the allocation was based on a $4.5 billion statewide adequacy gap.
Many GOP lawmakers have continued to voice skepticism of the adequacy funding formula during budget negotiations. This year was no different.
Despite agreeing to a final budget deal that included Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed education spending, state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) told PCN that evaluating the success of the formula so far is “unfinished business” that his caucus intends to pursue.
“We think there needs to be more accountability in the world of adequacy funding,” Pittman said. “And quite frankly, this adequacy funding formula has created another world of haves and have-nots among the 500 school districts.”
Hillary Linardopoulos, policy director at the Education Law Center, told Spotlight PA that schools must report to the state Department of Education their plan for the funds and how they are ultimately used.
“It absolutely has been a success in that districts are using it for foundational supports that make schools what they should be: places of learning where students can access robust curriculum,“ Linardopoulos said, emphasizing that it’s important for schools to offer smaller class sizes, after-school programs, STEM education, and full-day kindergarten.
“All of those, all of those are really what makes a school feel like a school should, and are really essential to a young person thriving.”
The adequacy and tax equity funding are a supplement to $8.3 billion for basic education and $1.6 billion for special education that the 2026-27 budget divides among the districts.
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