Some of Pennsylvania’s school districts may have to empty their reserves or take out loans to open for the fall semester because billions of dollars in state aid is held up in a month-old political stalemate.
State payments to school districts normally start going out by the end of July, but the standoff between Gov. Josh Shapiro and a politically divided Legislature appears sure to stretch well into August, and perhaps beyond.
The district has been working with a deficit for 14 years, Iskric said, and there’s no funding to bridge the gap when the state starts missing payments to the roughly 1,400-student district just outside Harrisburg.Any loan, however, will likely come with high interest rates and fees that would further compound the district’s deficit, Iskric said.
Counties are also anticipating stalled payments and hundreds of millions of dollars that normally go to Pennsylvania’s state-related universities are also being held up, potentially meaning higher tuition. The state will miss its first payment to schools, about $190 million earmarked for special education, at the end of July. A delay past mid-August means districts will miss the first portion of their basic education funding, $1.1 billion, which typically is delivered at the end of that month.
The previous stalemate showed why it is important for districts to maintain enough money to plug holes when state funding stalls, said Susquehanna Community School District Superintendent Bronson Stone. Hazleton Area School District can make it just about two months given its $6 million biweekly payroll, said Superintendent Brian Uplinger.
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