Lucas Masin-Moyer, JD Anticipated May 2024, Law and Public Policy Scholar
Leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, discussion and legislative action on public education centered on what is taught in schools. The controversies over Critical Race Theory, “Don’t Say Gay” bills and parental rights have eclipsed serious issues regarding funding inequities in public education. For example, Pennsylvania’s “hold harmless” funding model remains largely unchallenged even though it creates an education system that fails many students, particularly English Language Learner (EL) students.
Pennsylvania’s “hold harmless” education funding structure was implemented in 1992. It replaced a model that relied on students’ relative needs to distribute funds with a model where “no district could receive less state funding than it did the year prior.” Accordingly, the “hold harmless” system has essentially frozen funding amounts for the last 30 years, with the state making only slight, need-based adjustments with the “Fair Funding” Model in 2016, instituted with the passage of P.L. 252, No. 35. In this “Fair Funding Model,” new education funds are allocated each year based on a multiplier system. Under multiplier systems, schools are given a specified amount of money per student, with students in certain groups being weighted more heavily for funding purposes. Yet despite these 2016 modifications, a vast majority of Pennsylvania’s education funding—approximately 87 percent—is still allocated based on the levels established by “Hold Harmless” in 1992.
“Hold harmless” especially disadvantages EL students. Although the number of EL students in Pennsylvania schools has grown from approximately 39,000 students in 2002 to approximately 61,000 students in 2022, the funding for schools that serve these students has remained largely unchanged. In the absence of more equitable funding, schools cannot implement initiatives that would help better serve EL students, such as teacher training programs and bilingual instructional models where students are taught part of the day in their native language and the other part of the day in English.
Because schools have not received this funding to implement necessary programs, a significant achievement gap exists between EL students and their non-EL classmates. According to a 2012 study of education in Pennsylvania by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, “non-[EL] students’ performance was 21-55 percentage points higher than that of [EL] students in reading, math, and writing.” Additionally, only 64.1 percent of EL students in Pennsylvania graduated from high school, a graduation rate that is 20.2 percentage points lower than non-EL students.
“Hold harmless” and the current education funding structure in Pennsylvania fails EL students not only because of the achievement gaps it creates between EL and non-EL students, but also because EL students’ performance on standardized reading and math assessments actually decreases as students move up in grade level. In 2017, fourth grade EL students in Pennsylvania were only 5.7 percent proficient in math (down from 12.4 percent in 2009) and 5.3 percent proficient in reading. These proficiency levels for EL students in Pennsylvania dropped in both math and reading by the time EL students reached eighth grade, with EL students being only 4.9 percent proficient in math and 4.7 percent proficient in reading.
Other states, including California and Texas, have implemented structures that better serve EL students. Both California and Texas use a multiplier system to fund education in their states, but unlike Pennsylvania, they apply the multiplier to all their education funding rather than just a small percentage. As a result, California and Texas have been able to better fund EL education. This more equitable funding has led to smaller graduation gaps in these states with California and Texas having, respectively, 16.0 and 16.8 percentage point gaps in high school graduation between EL students and non-EL students as of 2017.
Additionally, since 2019, Texas has begun to use an education funding structure which includes dual-language instructional models in its EL learning plan, with EL students being assigned an increased multiplier if the school agrees to implement a dual language instructional model. This increased multiplier for schools using a dual language instructional model makes it so schools receive approximately $924 more per EL student who is served by a said model. Texas has also increased the multiplier for non-EL students participating in dual language programs to provide further funds for these dual language programs.
The differing funding structures used in California and Texas are not perfect solutions to the inequities facing EL students. Achievement gaps, albeit smaller ones, still exist in these states. However, these funding structures remain instructive in providing the Pennsylvania legislature in with a model for how they could move away from the “hold harmless” model and instead move towards a more equitable education funding structure for EL students.
If Pennsylvania wants to better serve its EL students then, it ought to do away with this “hold harmless” model of fund education and instead adopt a more equitable funding system in line with California and Texas so its EL students can truly thrive.