Act 73 creates foundation formula with $15,033 base, new weights and multi‑year transition
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Summary
Presenters described Act 73’s new foundation formula: a $15,033 per‑pupil base (inflation‑adjusted), new additive weights (pre‑K, economic disadvantage, refined ELL and special‑education weights), small‑school and sparse‑school support grants, and a five‑year proration transition beginning FY2029.
House Education members received a technical walkthrough of Act 73’s finance provisions, which replace much existing ad‑spending structures with an educational opportunity payment (EOP) calculated by multiplying a district’s weighted long‑term membership by a base amount. The presenter described the base amount as $15,033 per pupil (inflation‑adjusted) and said grade‑level weights other than pre‑K are repealed while new weights for economic disadvantage, multiple English‑learner proficiency levels, and special‑education need categories are added.
The act also creates two school‑level support grants: a small‑school support grant for schools with fewer than 100 pupils on average (with an annual State Board determination for small‑by‑necessity status) and a sparse‑school support grant for schools in municipalities with fewer than 55 persons per square mile (again subject to annual State Board standards). The presenter said the FY29 foundation report will advise on geographic measures for sparsity and other cost‑factor updates.
To smooth transitions, Act 73 instructs calculation of the gap between a district’s FY29 EOP and its FY25 ad spending and prorates that gap over five years so districts move gradually to their FY29 EOPs; full transition is expected by FY33. Presenters warned the proration assumes current district configurations and said changes to district boundaries would require legislative or administrative adjustments to the transition calculations.
Tax and reserve changes were also discussed: the act establishes a uniform statewide education tax to fund the foundation formula while retaining locally voted supplemental district spending for amounts above the EOP, and it creates a reserve to capture and correct excess supplemental revenues (recapture) that could be used to adjust statewide rates the following year.
What’s next: presenters and members agreed the complexity of the finance package requires further committee work and staff modeling to estimate district winners and losers under multiple boundary and weight scenarios.