State Budget/Stimulus Funding

This week's post will discuss the update on the Stimulus Funding and the impact it may have on the education funding for the schools in Pennsylvania.

I attended a conference on the Stimulus Funding on May 1, 2009, to hear what the State's top financial people had to say in terms of defining how the funds could be used and how School Districts would be accessing and accounting for these funds.

Unfortunately no clear answers were given at this conference. The State is still in a wait and see mode, looking for guidance from the Federal Government. This makes it very difficult for local School District's, who by law must pass their preliminary budgets this month.

My speculation is that most School Districts will not incorporate Stimulus Funding into their preliminary budget or even their final budget if no clear set of directives are given.

What may happen is that the School District's may treat this funding source as "pass through funds" posting the actual expenses and revenues as transfer items to their actual expenditure and revenue accounts (which haven't been developed yet by PDE) when they actually receive the funds as close their financial books on 2009-10.

Hopefully, some of the logistical issues can resolved soon so that money from the Federal Government can be put to good use immediately and enable School Districts to not raise taxes in order to expand academic opportunities for our students.