Public School Cuts Hit Philly The Hardest

MyFoxPhilly.com has obtained the latest proposed spending cuts for Pennsylvania public school districts, and nine school districts closer to Philadelphia will take the biggest financial blow.

The State Senate released a document on Monday, which is now on the Internet , that shows state spending cuts for each Pennsylvania public school district, and how much money cut by Gov. Tom Corbett in March was restored by the state House.

Link: Check Your School's Spending Cuts

The State Senate document details a widely publicized House plan to restore $269 million of Corbett's education cuts for public schools. The bill still leaves more than $860 million in public school spending cuts in the final budget.

The Senate plan includes $39 million in new money for schools to use for Social Security payments. Central Bucks, Council Rock and North Penn received more than $1 million each to use for Social Security.

But Philadelphia was shut out from receiving any money to use for Social Security, and only saw 7 percent of Corbett's cuts restored.

In fact, of the 10 school districts in the state facing the biggest funding cuts, nine are in the greater Philadelphia area, according to House Bill 1485.

Phoenixville, Coatesville, West Chester, Norristown and Philadelphia are among the districts with the biggest cuts out of 500 districts in the state.

Four of those seven school districts are above the state average "poverty concentration ," a number based on the percentage of students eligible for a free lunch. (The higher the number, the poorer the students.)

Philadelphia also saw no change its basic education funding, which was cut by $103 million by Corbett. The School Reform Commission did get $22 million in a grant to use for kindergarten. In all, Philadelphia lost $276 million from the state.

In comparison, Pittsburgh got $500,000 in funds to use for Social Security and had 26 percent of its funding cuts restored.

Oxford Area saw the smallest amount of funding restored, followed by Carbondale and Philadelphia.

Of the 20 districts that saw the least funding restored from Corbett's cuts, 17 were above the state average "poverty concentration.

Radnor, Colonial and Lower Merion saw the most funding restored from Corbett's cuts.