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Special Report
PSBA’s Three-week Campaign:
2022-23 State Budget Asks
Week 1
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June 6, 2022
Negotiations for the 2022-23 state budget are underway at the Capitol as the deadline for a June 30 spending plan nears. While PSBA continues to advocate for increases in the basic education funding (BEF) subsidy, including the Level Up initiative that targets additional resources to certain school districts, we are also focusing on three other specific funding needs.
Join us in a three-week campaign by reaching out to your legislators on these critical budget issues:
Week 1 - Special Education: Minimum $200 million increase needed
Week 2 - Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Students: Minimum $60 million needed
Week 3 - Career and Technical Education: Minimum $25 million increase driven out to CTE programs needed
What you can do
Each week we will center our efforts on one issue and ask that you contact your members of the Senate and House of Representatives to advocate for the weekly issue. We are coordinating this effort so that our voices are amplified and our message is heard by legislators. At the beginning of each week, we will issue a special Legislative EDition newsletter (like this one) that includes details and talking points on each issue and new Closer Look publications to give to your legislators.
After you receive the Report, review the information and soon afterward reach out to your legislators explaining the need for the funding. Use the talking points below and in the linked document. You can also send the document to your legislators. Here is the contact information for your Senator and Representative. We need you to help by advocating in the best way you know how, no matter the method please reach out – phone, email, social media or handwritten letter.
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Week 1 ask: An increase of at least $200 million in state funding for special education is needed to help keep pace with increases in mandated expenses and reduce the reliance on local property tax revenues to pay these mandated costs.
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Share this publication with your legislators when you contact them to make the Week 1 ask. Use the talking points below for your emails and phone calls.
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- Of all the cost drivers on school district budgets, special education is one of the hardest to control. Public schools are required by federal law and state regulations to provide students with disabilities with specialized programs, services and supports which allow them to receive an education. These programs, services and supports come with substantial additional expenses because they are individualized for each student. And because special education costs are mandated, school districts have very little, if any, control over those costs and how they increase year over year.
- The percentage of students identified for special education has been steadily increasing. In 2020-21, more than 307,000, or 18.1% of public school students, received special education programs and services.9 This represents a 13.9% increase over the last 12 years while overall public school enrollments are down 4.7% in that same time.
- The increases in special education expenses outpace revenues. With the number of students requiring special education growing, so too have the expenses for public schools. Between the 2009-10 and 2020-21 school years state and federal special education revenue increased 5.3% while special education spending has increased 63.9%.
- The state share of special education expenses has been steadily decreasing because it has not kept up with the increases in expenditures. In 2009-10, state and federal revenue accounted for 38.2% of special education expenses but that percentage fell to 24.5% by 2020-21. Because state and federal special education funding has failed to keep pace with the growth in expenses, most school districts have been forced to pay a larger share of special education expenses entirely from increases in local funding sources such as property taxes. With state and federal funding making up less than a quarter of what schools spend for special education in the most recent school year, the remaining 75%, or nearly $4.3 billion, will have to come from other, primarily local sources of revenue.
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