Education trust fund proposed to replace school property taxes
The article discusses a new proposal in the Pennsylvania Legislature to address the state’s ongoing challenges with funding public education. Republican Representative Jason Ortitay has introduced a plan to create the Pennsylvania Education Endowment Fund, which would replace school property taxes. The fund would be financed through one-time state asset sales, expanded natural gas drilling, shares of gambling revenue, public-private partnerships, and investment returns from state bonds. Ortitay argues this fund could generate enough money to supplant the $16 billion currently raised from property taxes, alleviating the financial burden on homeowners, especially seniors and working families.
This approach marks a departure from previous efforts, which either failed to find sustainable funding or relied on politically difficult tax swaps. However, partisan divisions, with Democrats controlling the House and governorship, suggest resistance to Ortitay’s plan. Instead, Democratic leaders, alongside Governor Josh Shapiro, favor increasing annual state appropriations to public schools to comply with a court ruling that current funding is inadequate. As Shapiro assumed office in 2023, state education funding has increased by over $2 billion, but disparities remain due to varying local tax bases, which affect resource availability across districts.
Education trust fund proposed to replace school property taxes
(The Center Square) – A new solution for Pennsylvania’s perennial struggle over education funding began circulating in the Legislature on Wednesday.
This time, Republican Rep. Jason Ortitay, who represents a district southwest of Pittsburgh, wants to establish the Pennsylvania Education Endowment Fund using one-time state asset sales, expanded natural gas drilling on leased lands, a share of gambling revenue, public-private partnerships and investment returns from state bonds.
Altogether, Ortitay says the fund’s value will grow enough to replace all $16 billion collected from taxpayers to support public schools.
“For decades, Pennsylvanians have demanded relief from the crushing burden of school property taxes, especially seniors, working families, and homeowners on fixed incomes,” he said in a cosponsorship memo. “Previous proposals to eliminate these taxes have either relied on politically unworkable tax swaps or failed to provide a sustainable funding source for public education.”
The endowment fund, he said, would “chart a different course.”
Existing partisan ideology suggests that Democrats, majority party of the House of Representatives and occupant of the governor’s mansion, will not want to travel that route.
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Instead, the chamber’s leaders, in concert with Gov. Josh Shapiro, want the state to appropriate more money to public education each year to meet a court order that deemed the commonwealth’s current funding levels unconstitutional.
Since Shapiro took office in 2023, state funding has risen by over $2 billion. Still, adequacy gaps exist because disparate tax bases mean local support – which covers about two-thirds of education funding in the commonwealth – mean poorer districts can’t afford the same resources as their wealthier counterparts.
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