Across Pennsylvania, public school districts are using additional state education funding to hire teachers and counselors, reduce class sizes, expand career and technical education, support student mental health, and keep programs afloat.
The additional funding, more than $500 million in this year’s state budget, is called an “adequacy supplement.” And it’s proving to be more than just a line item to local school districts. It’s also bringing in results that are showing up in classrooms.
“We are pleased with the adequacy funding that’s been provided,” said Dr. Eric Becoats, superintendent of the William Penn School District. “But, in order for us to maintain the success that we’ve made, sustain it, and accelerate it, we need to make sure that the continued investment is predictable, it’s long-term, and it’s sufficient for us to continue to close the gap.”
Becoats’ Delaware County district has used the additional funding to support academic interventionists and instructional facilitators, as well as mental health supports. He said the district has seen meaningful improvements, including growth in math.
The experiences of William Penn and other districts are detailed in a recent report, The Impact of Pennsylvania’s Adequacy Supplement, which examines how schools across the commonwealth have used the first round of additional state funding.
The report comes as Pennsylvania continues its effort to address the inequities in the state’s school funding system following the landmark William Penn School District et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education decision. The commonwealth court found that the state’s funding system violated the Education Clause and Equal Protection Clause in Pennsylvania’s Constitution. Lawmakers created the adequacy funding to provide additional state money to lower income districts.
The first $494 million adequacy supplement was included in the 2024-25 budget and distributed to 348 school districts serving nearly 1.5 million students. That’s about 88% of Pennsylvania’s public school students.
How the money is being used
School districts are allowed to use adequacy funds wherever it is needed.
In Cambria County, the Westmont Hilltop School District has used its additional funding to support more than 100 students each year who attend the Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center. The district’s superintendent, Thomas Mitchell, said the program costs the district about $1 million each year.
The money has also helped the district maintain its full day kindergarten program, Advanced Placement courses, and STEAM programming.
“These are not extras. These are essentials,” Mitchell said. “Without reliable state funding, these are exactly the kind of programs that would be at risk.”
Westmont Hilltop has the second highest school tax rate in the county. More than 40% of its students are lower income, Mitchell said. The district’s special education expenses have increased by 58% over the last seven years.
In the Shippensburg Area School District, adequacy funding pays the salary and benefits of 12 kindergarten teachers and two English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
The Chambersburg Area School District in Franklin County used its funding to add counseling staff, intervention specialists, and Science of Reading training. The district reported a 40% reduction in high school discipline, declining dropout rates, and a 10% increase in reading performance in kindergarten and first grade at schools using specific intervention strategies.
In Lehighton, the money helped reduce average elementary class sizes across the Lehighton Area School District, from about 26 students to 20, and provided a social worker in every school building. The district reported improvements in first grade literacy after seeing a significant decline the previous school year.
And in Otto-Eldred School District in McKean County—a rural district that relies on the state for nearly 80% of its funding—adequacy dollars helped maintain full day kindergarten and library services. The district reported that the number of kindergarten students meeting reading benchmarks increased to 78%, while math performance increased by 30%.
At William Penn, Becoats said the district’s experience shows what happens when additional resources reach schools.
“That’s what I would say really, really matters, when the dollars follow the students and those dollars are provided to districts in a timely manner.”
More money = more progress
The report notes that initial investments are producing promising results and an increase in adequacy funding could mean even more progress.
But Pennsylvania is also doling out close to $700 million each year to two other education programs: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit.
These two programs de-prioritize the work being done across public schools by allowing businesses to reduce the amount of money they pay into the state tax pot by donating to approved “scholarship organizations.” Those organizations then distribute scholarship money to students for private school tuition or other approved educational expenses.
Over the last decade, funding for the EITC alone has increased by 353%, far outpacing the roughly 60% increase in state funding for public education during the same period.
During a House Education Committee hearing, lawmakers raised concerns about the lack of oversight surrounding the scholarship programs. The approved scholarship organizations are required to provide only limited information about students who benefit, while much of the data, such as family income, remains private to the organizations doling out the scholarships.
“This is a significant amount of money, but we have very little data on how it is being spent, where it is being utilized, and if the students utilizing the program have improved academic performance,” Rep. Peter Schweyer, the committee’s majority chair, said during the hearing.
New reporting requirements begin with the 2025-26 academic year, but they still don’t require scholarship organizations to report household income and reveal if the programs are supporting wealthy Pennsylvanians who would otherwise still send their kids to private school. Proposed legislation would impose additional reporting requirements, including information about scholarship amounts and remaining tuition costs.
Will progress continue?
At Westmont Hilltop, Mitchell said the progress made with the initial adequacy funding can be seen in real time, but must be supported to be sustained.
“The initial investment in adequacy funds has made a difference, but it is not enough to fully address the long standing gaps in Pennsylvania school funding system,” Mitchell said. “That is why continued and increased investment is critical.”
Becoats said the same about William Penn. It’s not a question of if school districts can put additional money to work, he said. The question is how much more the state is willing to invest in its public school students.
“The first round of adequacy funding has offered a glimpse of what is possible when resources begin to match students’ needs,” Becoats said.
