Gov. Corbett Holding Bill Signing Event at Tennent Friday

Governor Tom Corbett is scheduled to visit William Tennent Friday, June 14 at 12 p.m. to sign Special Education House Bill 2 (Act 3 of 2013) that seeks to create a better funding formula to support special education in Pennsylvania.

The bill’s prime architect and sponsor, Rep. Bernie O’Neill, will join with the Governor and Centennial Board of School Directors, administrators, and representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to celebrate the signing. 

The bill establishes a 15-member Special Education Funding Commission to develop a new formula to calculate the way funding is distributed to school districts, moving away from the one-size-fits-all model that gives every district the same amount of money.

The new system will create three cost categories for special education services and will include an actual student count instead of assuming an average. 

Currently, each district receives special education funding based on the assumption that 16 percent of its students receive special education, which is the state average. These same districts pay a flat rate to charter schools that claim to deliver special education to students from public schools, often without any tracking. 

“This is a welcome change.  Public school districts need legislation that addresses funding gaps and inequities.  Such reform supports our mission and we are thrilled to see this change,” said Substitute Superintendent Dr. Joyce Mundy. 

“This Bill has tremendous bipartisan support,” said Centennial School Board Director Mark B. Miller, Co-Chair of the Keystone State Education Coalition and First Vice President of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Miller strongly supported Rep. O’Neill’s efforts to develop the bill. 

“We are very grateful to Rep. O’Neill for his hard work over the last seven years to bring this bill to reality,” said Miller.  “HB2 has the potential to redistribute special education funding in a more equitable fashion and make a real difference in accountability for the cost and level of services provided to students across the Commonwealth.”

Centennial School District Board of Education Legislative Chair Jane Schrader Lynch also supported O’Neill and Miller on the bill.  

Representative O’Neill, who was a special education teacher for 25 years in the Centennial School District, is a graduate of William Tennent High School. 

The Funding Commission that the bill establishes will be comprised of the Chairmen of the House and Senate Education committees, eight Legislators, the Secretaries of Education and Budget, and the State Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Special Education.

The commission will hold public hearings this summer to help it develop a new funding formula. Recommendations of the commission are due to be presented by September 30.