PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As legislators debate a proposal to boost Pennsylvania's K-12 education budget, a University of Pennsylvania analysis says spending more would have measurable benefits.
On the heels of last year's court ruling that Pennsylvania education funding was unconstitutionally inadequate, the Basic Education Funding Commission recommended a $5.1 billion increase in state K-12 spending over seven years.
An analysis by doctoral students David Loeb and Katie Pullom of Penn's Graduate School of Education concludes funding at that level would boost high school graduation rates by 4.47% and lead to a 4.54% increase in the number of students enrolling in colleges. The report also said the proposal would create more than 18,000 K-12 jobs, could raise teacher salaries in poor districts by more than $7,000, and would result in higher earnings for high school grads.
Associate professor Brooks Bowden, who heads Penn GSE’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, broke down the $5 billion proposal in the analysis entitled “The Benefits of Adequacy.”
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“Even though the number is large, it isn't like some lavish proposal to go in and build all new schools or reduce class sizes down to tiny numbers,” she told KYW Newsradio.
“I know that there's a lot of concern among lawmakers around is this something that we should be doing? I think the court case clearly points to yes, so it's more of a question of how,” she said.
“We find that this investment is just a really important opportunity for Pennsylvania to invest in the current students and future students to increase school quality and increase the outcomes of students all across the state,” Bowden added.