A new Commonwealth Foundation study shows that even with record education spending of $23,061 spent per pupil, many Pennsylvania students aren’t learning.
In the Keystone State, education spending from all sources—federal, state, and local—reached $38.6 billion in 2023–24.
And Pennsylvania taxpayers are kicking even more for schoolkids this year, thanks to a massive $1.1 billion increase in the 2024-25 state budget. State education spending hit an all-time high of $16.8 billion, a 66 percent increase in the last decade.
School districts also expanded their general fund reserves to $7.4 billion, up $557 million from the previous year. In 2023, Auditor General Timothy DeFoor reported that some school districts were misusing their reserves by hiding them in a “shell game” and raising taxes.
However, higher spending hasn’t led to higher test scores or improved student achievement.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released in January, showed 69 percent of the state’s eighth graders weren’t proficient in math and reading. Only 41 percent of fourth graders were proficient in math and 31 percent in reading.
The 2024 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) results also show poor performance, with about half of Pennsylvania’s fourth and eighth graders not reading proficiently at grade level. More than half of Pennsylvania’s fourth graders and nearly 75 percent of the state’s eighth graders cannot perform math at grade level. And among third to eighth-grade students, only 18 percent are proficient in math and reading.
One shocking data point: The 2024 Keystone Exam identified 18 schools that didn’t have a single student testing proficient in English or math.
“The education crisis at hand is not a result of underfunding but a consequence of funding schools instead of students. Throwing more money at the problem has not and will not save our students from failing schools,” Elizabeth Stelle, vice president of policy for the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania free market think tank. “Students are stuck in the school district assigned to their ZIP Code, regardless of whether that district performs well. Today, thousands remain on waiting lists for tax-credit scholarships, hoping for a chance at a better education.”
Amy Kobeta, communications director with left-leaning group Children First, took issue with the Commonwealth study.
“The report’s claim that our state spends $23,000 per student distorts the facts. That figure is an average, so half of schools are well below that amount,” Kobeta claimed.
“As consumers, we all know that quality costs money. If we want students to succeed and grow up to be productive members of society, they have to have a quality education. Even the Commonwealth Court agreed that the way Pennsylvania has long (under)funded our schools violates the law of the land, our state constitution. Specifically, the court found that some rural, suburban, and big-city schools do not have the resources to help all their student succeed.
“We are only one year into filling the deep funding gap that has created inadequate funding – and inadequate school resources – so it’s unfair to cite past data to criticize new investments,” Kobeta said. “Pennsylvania must stay the course and continue to fill the massive funding shortfall through the new formula.”
What shortfall, asks former Radnor School Board member Rich Booker.
“When I was on the Radnor School Board (2002-2007), I would often comment, half-joking, that the entire $100 million a year budget would be spent, even if not a single student attended school for the year. The COVID years proved that I was correct. In fact, the cost of education actually increased when students stayed home.”
“The money being spent on education benefits teachers, administrators, consultants, contractors, vendors, writers and publishers of books, and others — it does not go to benefit children,” Booker said.
One reason per-pupil costs are rising is because Pennsylvania taxpayers are being asked to spend more on schools even as enrollment declined. The number of students in Pennsylvania public schools has fallen by 300,000 since the beginning of this century, while spending has increased by 146 percent.
“Unsurprisingly, school districts continue to hold exorbitant reserve funds—despite simultaneously pushing for property tax increases,” said Rachel Langan, the senior education policy analyst for the Commonwealth Foundation.
“Taxpayers deserve better. Sitting on large, often excessive reserves while clamoring for more state funding is not good stewardship by public schools.”
Since COVID-19, more parents are choosing options other than traditional public school, another reason enrollment is declining.
The percentage of parents homeschooling their children has doubled, and the share of students in private schools has ticked up as well.
“The way things are today, if you are serious about education for your children, you really can’t put them in public schools. That applies to even the very top school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Radnor, Tredyffrin/Easttown, Lower Merion). The entire school district industrial complex has been captured by ideologues whose sole purpose is to extract government money,” said Booker.
“The vast majority of our children are not well served by our public school system. And the public-school industrial complex requires more and more money to get poorer and poorer results.”
