The Stimulus package that just passed the US House of Representatives is getting people salivating at the thought of a possible federally funded Mt Lebanon High School construction project. As it stands today, under the current bill, construction funding for Mt Lebanon would not amount to much.
According the bill that passed the House, funding to school districts will be sent to the State first. That money then will be doled out by the State according to its "principal funding formula". Pennsylvania's funding formula does not help us out very much.
There was an article in the Post-Gazette on Tuesday that outlined how much money each school district would receive. In fact, the calculation for every school district in the state can be found here. According to this chart put together by US Rep Jason Altmire's Education and Labor Committee, Mt Lebanon would expect to receive the following funds:
1) Construction Funding - $207,600
2) IDEA Funding -$568,200 (2009) and $651,200 (2010)
Total funding would be $1,427,100 over two years under this bill.
By contrast, the City of Pittsburgh schools would receive $55,023,600 over two years including almost $24 million for construction alone. City of Philadelphia School District would receive $504, 977,700 with almost $212 million for construction purposes.
The Senate still needs to pass its version of the bill. The reality of the situation is that any bill that asks the State to disperse money for education according to their existing principal funding formula will by definition put Mt Lebanon far down the list of financially needy school districts.
We can hope for change, but I think it would be unrealistic of the Board to expect much more than this.
Thanks for reading.
James
