Schools across Pennsylvania began the school year without an approved state budget, leading the district to begin operations for the 2025-26 school year using money received from local collections of taxes and out of their reserve. According to Superintendent Brad Hatch, under the current usage of funds, the school district’s reserve of funds will run out by the end of November.
Schools need funds to function. In order to support the commonwealth’s schools, the Pennsylvania state legislature needs to approve a state budget.
The school district’s budget supports all operations within the district’s schools, pre-k through high school as well as adult education programs. The 2025-26 combined budget of about $125,000,000 would support schools’ faculty and staff, students of all ages and other operations within the schools. This money is composed mostly of state and local funding as well as some federal funding, two of which–state and federal funding–are not currently being received by the school district.
The lack of funding comes as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania surpasses 100 days without a budget and the federal government is stuck in a shutdown, stopping any new federal grants from being passed. Some federal funding and grants approved before the shutdown have gone through, but some approved shortly before the shut down have not been able to be cleared.
If the school does not soon receive the funding it had planned for, the district will be put in a tough spot in monetary decision making. According to Representative Lou Schmitt, the only options left to Pa schools will be to borrow money (take out loans), hold off payments or dip into reserves–which the district is already doing. Additionally, according to Hatch, the possibility of taking out loans or liquidating assets may also be on the horizon should the school not receive funding soon.
As it now stands, the Pennsylvania legislature must reach a decision regarding the state budget for the good of school districts across the state and for the good of other operations across the state. Without this funding, students’ educations in districts across the state are put into jeopardy as schools have to make critical decisions regarding the futures of their operations.
The cause is not hopeless, however, and an end to the current Pennsylvania budget impasse may be on the horizon, according to Pa. Representative Roni Green (D). However, the longer the state remains without a budget, the greater the posed threat to the school district becomes.
Without an approved budget, the future remains uncertain for Pennsylvania schools, and it is only a matter of time before the schools’ students and staff begin to suffer the consequences.
