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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. John Siptroth |
  
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Siptroth joins Gov. Rendell at signing of education budget
HARRISBURG, July 9 –State Rep. John Siptroth, D-Monroe/Pike, joined Gov. Ed Rendell as he signed the 2008-09 education budget funding package into law on Tuesday.
"For the first time in nearly two decades, the new budget introduces a more predictable and fair education funding formula," Siptroth said. "This new formula is the first step toward the equitable funding for growing districts that I aimed for by introducing House Resolution 460."
Siptroth introduced H.R. 460 last fall to encourage action on the costing-out study the legislature commissioned in the previous session.
The almost unanimous passage of Siptroth’s resolution in the House in January this year prompted the governor and lawmakers to create a new funding formula to better direct state education dollars to the districts where they are needed most.
This year's education budget increases funding for basic education by $274 million, while also continuing to fund successful initiatives that are benefiting children from early childhood through graduation.
In Siptroth's district, which includes some of the fastest-growing school districts in the state, schools will receive between a 7 percent and 10 percent increase in their basic education funding, much higher than the statewide average of 3 percent.
"My goal is for the state to return to funding public education at a 50 share rather than the 35 percent it has become," Siptroth said. "Because of that loss in funding, school districts have turned to property owners to make up the difference, and that has meant great hardship to homeowners in my district. The new funding outlined in this year's budget is a step in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go."
Siptroth also noted that he still supports shifting more of the school property tax burden to the sales tax and is a co-sponsor of several bills which seek to do this.
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