This letter to the editor was submitted to LebTown. Read our submission policy here.
LebTown’s recent article on Pennsylvania public school adequacy funding should concern every taxpayer in the Eastern Lebanon County School District.
For years, ELCO families and property owners have been asked to do their part to support our schools. Yet under the state’s current adequacy funding formula, ELCO is one of the districts shut out of meaningful additional support. While some districts receive hundreds of thousands or even millions more, ELCO receives only the guaranteed $50,000 minimum.
That matters locally. When the state sends major new funding to some districts but not to ours, the burden does not disappear. It falls more heavily on local taxpayers, school boards, and communities that are still expected to provide quality educational opportunities for students.
ELCO is also one of only four districts in the Lebanon/Lancaster IU13 region that do not receive extra adequacy funding. That should raise serious questions for residents across our district. If the goal is fair and proportionate funding, why are ELCO students and taxpayers being treated as if our needs are somehow less important?
This is not real reform. It is another funding system that creates winners and losers. The legislature was told to fix an unconstitutional and inequitable system, but the current formula still leaves communities like ours on the outside looking in.
There also must be accountability for districts already receiving millions in state aid and now receiving millions more. Taxpayers deserve to know how those dollars are being spent and whether they are producing measurable results for students.
If Pennsylvania is serious about reducing or eliminating school property taxes, lawmakers must first fix the education funding formula. ELCO taxpayers should not be expected to carry an unfair share while Harrisburg calls the system fair.
Rachel Moyer
Eastern Lebanon County School Board President
