Chairman Adolph Statement on Governor Wolf Education Distribution
HARRISBURG – Rep. William F. Adolph, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement in response to the governor’s decision to distribute education funds without required legislation:
“Once again we see that the governor is ignoring legislation that has become law in order to achieve his goals. This blatant disregard of the legislative process is very concerning. Instead of using a formula that would distribute education funding in a fair and equitable manner, the governor is picking winners and losers. The Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC) worked hard for over a year and a half on creating a fair funding formula that addressed the needs of growing schools and those schools facing tough economic conditions. The BEFC formula was bi-partisan and something that Governor Wolf signed off on and it should be the formula we use to distribute school funding.”
“Under the governor’s distribution formula 423 school districts would receive less funding than they would under the distribution found in the Fiscal Code that the governor vetoed. For example Upper Darby School District would receive $656,000 less, Ridley School District would receive $392,000 less, Allentown School District would receive $2.5 Million less, and Lancaster School District would receive $1.9 Million less. These school districts shouldn’t be harmed just because the governor didn’t hand pick them to receive more money.”
House Bill 1801, which was the General Fund budget that became law at the end of March, required that enabling legislation be enacted before the governor could distribute education funding above what was distributed in FY 2014-15. That enabling legislation was contained HB 1327 which was the Fiscal Code that Governor Wolf vetoed. Therefore, the governor has no legislative authority to distribute this money.
“We must come together, both Republican and Democrat, to fix this reckless action taken by the governor. We need to be open and transparent with how we distribute education funding. The Basic Education Funding Commission worked hard for many months going to all four corners of the Commonwealth. The formula that was developed was unanimously approved and it is the formula that we should be using.”
Representative William Adolph
165th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: John O’Brien
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jobrien@pahousegop.com
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