HARRISBURG — The House today passed legislation authored by Montgomery County Rep. Ellen M. Bard (R-153) increasing the state’s per-pupil subsidy for growing school districts.

Specifically, Bard’s amendment to the state budget guarantees school districts will receive either the per-pupil subsidy they received in 1991-92 — the year the state’s funding formula was changed — or a 2 percent per-pupil subsidy increase for fiscal year 2000-01, whichever is greater.

" I’m very pleased that the House stepped up to the plate to help growing school districts, " Bard said. " Each day we delay providing additional aid to growing school districts is a day that we fail to alleviate the burden on those who pay property taxes and jeopardize the ability of those schools to continue providing quality education.

" I am hopeful that the Senate will pass a similar amendment. "

Bard noted that several rapidly growing school districts in the Commonwealth, including Abington in her legislative district, have experienced a substantial decline in per-pupil funding from the state as an unintended consequence of the school funding formula.

In 1991, the Commonwealth set aside its traditional funding formula in order to direct more state funds to financially distressed school districts by promising lawmakers that no school district would suffer funding decreases. According to Bard, lawmakers were promised that healthier school districts would be held harmless.

While the districts her legislation addresses do not receive less overall funding today from the state than they did in 1991-92, they receive far less per pupil due to their rapid growth – as much as three times the state average.

Given that the funding formula is retroactive to the previous year, calculations for fiscal year 1991-92 provide the basis for comparison. At that time, the average state per-pupil allotment for basic education was $1,792, for a total investment of $2.96 billion. Basic education subsidies grew to an average of $2,184 per pupil (a 22 percent increase), for a total investment of $3.8 billion in 2000-2001. In the 67 fastest-growing school districts, however, the average per-pupil state basic education subsidy has decreased by 6 percent, leaving those districts with approximately $54 less on average for each student. By comparison, the remaining school districts have seen their per-pupil state subsidy increase by 40 percent, or almost $674 more for each student.

Abington School District's per-pupil subsidy was $640 for fiscal year 1991-92, while the per-pupil subsidy in the original budget proposal for 2001-2002 was $597. The difference amounts to more than $320,000 dollars total for the entire district.