The Tyrone Area School District has been earmarked to receive a 3.22 percent increase in basic education funding from the state under the 2006-07 budget proposed by Governor Ed Rendell.
The budget includes $4,716,793,000 for districts throughout the state. The amount represents an additional $224 million or five percent more than the amount appropriated in 2005-06.
According to a press release from the governor’s office, Rendell’s overall education budget for the 2006-07 school year is tagged at $8.7 billion for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, which is $517 million, or 6.4 percent more than 05-06 year. The $8.7 billion includes the basic education funding along with funding for special education, block grants for Pre-K, full-day Kindergarten and other programs such as Head Start and tutoring programs.
TASD’s Superintendent Dr. William N. Miller spoke to The Daily Herald this morning about the governor’s proposals and said the 3.22 percent increase earmarked for Tyrone Area represents an additional $261,000 in basic ed funding.
In the 05-06 budget, Tyrone received $8,108,431. Under the proposed budget, Tyrone Area is expected to receive $8,369,597. Miller noted Tyrone received a 2.7 percent increase from 04-05 to 05-06.
“Democratic administrations have always provided a greater subsidy to us than Republicans,” said Miller. “Rendell has been very fair in terms of what can be done to support public education. He also proposed and has given us over the last year or so the block grants.”
Miller said the district has used the block grants for its four-year-old program and its full-day Kindergarten. He said the district’s proposed “accountability” grant is $296,206. Last year the grant was $241,984. This year’s amount is a $54,000 increase.
Miller commented, “(Rendell) has been supportive financially of public education and he has pushed hard for funding of early childhood education, which is extremely important for a child to achieve success in the public schools.”
The governor revealed his “Pennsylvania Competes” education-spending plan in his budget address last week.
Rendell said, “Our funding for early childhood, elementary and secondary education has increased by nearly $1.2 billion since 2002. As a result, student achievement is clearly on the rise: fifth graders meeting state standards are up from 53 percent to 69 percent; gains in reading and math are appearing at schools across the commonwealth; and, for the first time in Pennsylvania history, full-day kindergarten is available to more than half the eligible students statewide.”
Among the governor’s initiatives is a proposed new program called “Classrooms for the Future.” $200 million is earmarked to “transform high school teaching by providing laptops on every desk in English, math, science and history classes over three years.” The program would be phased in starting with the 2005-06 school with $20 million for 100 high schools and $6 million in training so teachers can use the technology in their efforts.
