ERIC Number: EJ1039344
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1539-9664
EISSN: N/A
The Philadelphia School District's Ongoing Financial Crisis
Caskey, John; Kuperberg, Mark
Education Next, v14 n4 p20-27 Fall 2014
This article describes the budget crisis that the School District of Philadelphia has faced for the past few years. Three specific events triggered the 2012 crisis: an abrupt reduction in federal and state funding, the inability of the district to cut many of its costs, and political pressures on the district to spend available revenues in a given year. Philadelphia is the ninth-poorest U.S. city with a population over 250,000. Relative to Pittsburgh and the Philadelphia suburbs, the school district is significantly underfunded by the state and its city government, especially when one adjusts for the comparatively large percentages of special education, English language learners, and low-income students. In short, the district faces huge challenges with limited resources. In addition to this fundamental fiscal weakness, the district is undermined by its governance structure. With no independent taxing authority, every year the district administration must plead for funding from the state and city.
Descriptors: Urban Schools, School Districts, Financial Problems, Public Schools, Educational Finance, Budgets, Retrenchment, Expenditure per Student, Charter Schools, State Aid, Taxes, Federal Aid, Elementary Secondary Education
Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Pennsylvania
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A