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Basic Education Funding Commission 2024 Report

2023-24 Basic Education Funding Commission Report – Overview by Co-Chair Mike Sturla

2023-24 Basic Education Funding Commission Report – Overview by Co-Chair Kristin Phillips-Hill

After 13 statewide public heaings, the Basic Education Funding Commission is proud to present it’s report featuring 8 key recommendations:

Calculate Adequacy Targets for Each School District

What is the Basic Education Funding Commission

The official 2023 BEF Commission website can be found here.

The Commission is a bipartisan group of state officials who are tasked with making recommendations about how to improve our system of funding public education.

The work of this Commission is an important part of addressing the Commonwealth Court decision in William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education et al. In that case, Judge Jubelirer found that the General Assembly has failed to meet our constitutional duty to provide a “thorough and efficient system of public education” by both underfunding and unfairly funding public schools across Pennsylvania.

In order to fulfill our constitutional obligation, Pennsylvania public schools must have both adequate and equitable resources – like smaller class sizes, up-to-date textbooks, and safe school buildings – so that every child has a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically.

History

The original BEF Commission was established in June of 2014. Its recommendations led to the enactment of the current Basic Education Funding Formula in 2015. You can download a copy of the last Commission’s full report, watch its hearings, and learn more about the 2014 Commission on their website.

The Commission was scheduled to reconvene five years later in 2020, but was postponed with a new due date of November 30, 2023 for its next report.

Current Commission Membership

The BEF Commission is made of 15 members— 4 Education Committee chairs, plus 2 additional legislators each from the four General Assembly Caucuses (House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats), plus 3 members of the Administration.

BEFC Membership (15 members – 3 from each caucus and 3 from the administration)
	May 2023 Commission
Education Chairs *
House Democrat	Rep. Pete Schweyer
House Republican	Rep. Jesse Topper
Senate Republican	Sen. David Argall
Senate Democrat	Sen. Lindsey Williams
At-Large (appointed by Speaker and Pro-Tempore in consultation with Caucus leaders)
House Democrat	Rep. Mike Sturla (Co-Chair)
House Democrat	Rep. Mary Isaacson
House Republican	Rep. Jason Ortitay
House Republican	Rep. Ryan Warner
Senate Democrat	Sen. Vincent Hughes
Senate Democrat	Sen. Nick Miller
Senate Republican	Sen. Kristin Philips-Hill (Co-Chair)
Senate Republican	Sen. Greg Rothman
Administration
PDE Secretary *	Dr. Khalid Mumin (designee Marcus Delgado)
PDE Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education *	Jeffrey Fuller (designee Angela Fitterer)
Gov. appointee from within administration	Natalie Krug (Budget Office)
* denotes a designee may serve