Temple’s Center on Regional Politics, Penn State’s College of Education, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Metropolitan Studies in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs formed the consortium (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file) to support state legislators and policymakers in a review of options for improving public school finance in Pennsylvania. Also in the consortium is the Pennsylvania Policy Forum, an informal network of faculty members, academic leaders, and policy researchers at public and private colleges across the Commonwealth. Working with the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Policy Forum has organized symposium on institutional issues for all Senate and House members and information sessions for newly elected members of both chambers.

Over one hundred business, labor, advocacy, civic, education, and government leaders came together for the first symposium on “How Public School Funding Works in Pennsylvania – Or Doesn’t: What You Need to Know” at the Philadelphia Marriott in Conshohocken on May 30, 2014. The second symposium “Funding Pennsylvania’s Public Schools: A Look Ahead” was on October 3 in Green Tree, right outside Pittsburgh, and the third was in Harrisburg on May 6, 2015.

Consortium Publications

• RESEARCH AT A GLANCE: Explaining School Fund Balances – 2018 Are Schools Holding Too Much in Reserve? | July 2018
• POLICY BRIEF: Explaining School Fund Balances: Are PA Local Education Agencies, with a $4.9 Billion Fund Balance, Holding Too Much in Reserve? An Update for FY 2016-17 | July 2018
  – View the report calculations in Excel.
• RESEARCH AT A GLANCE: Explaining School Fund Balances: Are PA Schools Holding Too Much in Reserve? | July 2017
• POLICY BRIEF: Explaining School Fund Balances: Are PA Schools, with a $4.7 Billion Fund Balance, Holding Too Much in Reserve? An Update for FY 2016-17 | July 2017
• RESEARCH AT A GLANCE: Hard Choices Still Ahead: The Financial Future of Pennsylvania School Districts | March 2017
• POLICY BRIEF: Hard Choices Still Ahead: The Financial Future of Pennsylvania School Districts | March 2017
• RESEARCH AT A GLANCE: Explaining School Fund Balances – Are PA Schools Really Flush? | July 2016
• POLICY BRIEF: Explaining School Fund Balances: An Update | July 2016
  – Access the data and distribution according to House and Senate district (Excel).
• RESEARCH AT A GLANCE: How Well Does Philadelphia Support its Public Schools? A New Perspective | January 2016
• POLICY BRIEF:How Well Does Philadelphia Support its Public Schools? A New Perspective | January 2016
• RAND Corporation Research Report: The Economic Impact of Achievement Gaps in Pennsylvania’s Public Schools | July 2015  (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
  – See the RAND Corporation Report, Abstract, Key Findings, and Technical Details.
  – Press Release (pdf.)
• POLICY BRIEF: Explaining School Fund Balances: An Update | June 2015 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
  Statistical Supplement Comparing Fund Balances for PA’s 500 School Districts (Excel format)
• POLICY BRIEF: Forecasting Fiscal Futures of Pennsylvania School Districts: Where Law and Current Policy Are Taking Our Public Schools | May 2015 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
  – Five Year Fiscal Forecasts for All 500 School Districts by Senate District | House District | School District
• POLICY BRIEF: Understanding Measures of Tax Effort and Tax Capacity | April 2015 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
  Tax effort and capacity data files (Excel format)
• POLICY BRIEF: The Politics of Educational Change: What Can We Learn from the School Consolidation Acts of 1961 and 1963? | March 2015  (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• POLICY BRIEF: Hold Harmless Education Finance Policies in the U.S.: A Survey | December 2014 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• POLICY BRIEF: Growth and Stability in Public School Revenue Sources: Can We Have Both? | October 2014 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• POLICY BRIEF: Explaining School Fund Balances: Are PA Schools, with $4.3 Billion in Reserve Funds, Really Flush? Just the (Dry) Facts | August 2014 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• Statistical Supplement Comparing Unassigned Fund Balances and Aid Ratios for PA’s 500 School Districts (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• May 30, 2014 Commentary: What Can We Learn from Pennsylvania’s History of Public School Finance? (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• ISSUE MEMO: How Pennsylvania Funds Public Schools: The Story of the Local Share | May 2014 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)
• ISSUE MEMO: How Pennsylvania Funds Public Schools: The Story of the State Share | May 2014 (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)