Panther Valley School District Superintendent David McAndrew was back on the witness stand Tuesday in Commonwealth Court for a second day of testimony in the school funding trial. His testimony started at 12:30 pm, with the afternoon almost all devoted to cross-examination by attorneys for Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman and House Speaker Bryan Cutler.
Some key facts about school funding in Panther Valley, a small rural district located in coal country in Eastern Pennsylvania:
The district needs $5,961 more per student to reach the state’s own benchmark for adequate education funding. That puts it in the top 10 districts in the state in the size of the per-pupil adequacy gap.
That gap represents a total $10.5 million shortfall in spending in relation to the district’s adequacy target.
Panther Valley’s funding shortfall does not reflect a lack of tax effort. The local tax rate is the 10th highest of PA’s 500 school districts.
Under cross-examination about issues like Panther Valley’s facilities, course offerings, and staffing levels, McAndrew stated that due to funding limitations, the resources at his schools are often very different from how they might appear on paper. For instance, Panther Valley has a list of course offerings but does not always have a credentialed teacher to teach them. The district has three reading specialists, but one of them is not certified. While a staff-student ratio takes into account all employees in a district, it does not reflect a school’s overcrowded classrooms.
The superintendent spoke about how his district often tries to make ends meet through private grants and outside funds; for example, getting other local entities to pay for repaving a high school parking lot that was full of potholes. Questioned about the district’s receipt of three rounds of federal COVID relief funds, McAndrew said that those funds are not recurring. He also talked about continuing staffing needs and facility issues that he is still unable to remedy.
Superintendent David McAndrew
With McAndrew concluding his testimony, the witnesses who are on deck for this week are Panther Valley teacher Tara Yuricheck, Professor Derek Black, and Dr. Matthew Gardner Kelly.
Yuricheck is a 5th grade history teacher who is also president of the Panther Valley Education Association
Professor Black is the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in constitutional law at the University of South Carolina School of Law. His expertise includes the history of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the education clause, including the debates and context of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-73.
Dr. Kelly is an assistant professor of education at Pennsylvania State University. His expertise includes the structure of Pennsylvania’s school funding system, Pennsylvania’s high reliance on local taxes to pay for its schools, the irrationalities of the current school funding scheme, and the inequities caused by this system.