KEYSTONE SCHOOL DISTRICT

451 Huston Avenue
Knox, PA  16232
(814) 797-5921       Fax:  (814) 797-2382

Their position:

• Action on school funding should be guided by the General Assembly's 2007 "Costing-out Study" which provides evidence and information needed to determine what it costs to educate every student so he or she can meet the state's academic standards.
• The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign supports the Governor's 2008-09 basic education budget proposal because it makes the critical step to fix our education finance system and fund it in six years.
• The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign recommends that the Governor's proposal be strengthened by:  paying a higher state share of funding per pupil to districts with limited wealth; including a plan to address special education; assuring transition of funding for all districts of 2%; and applying additional accountability provisions only to districts that fail to make adequate yearly progress.

Join the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign, and visit the organization's web site at www.paschoolfunding.org. 

Keystone School District Facing Funding Crisis

We urge you to download the letters linked below and sign and forward them to your elected representatives, whose names and addresses are also listed below. Please let them know that a 1.5% funding increase is unacceptable and that our Keystone students deserve the same educational advantages enjoyed by their peers in other parts of Pennsylvania.

Letter #1 (pdf file)

Letter #2 (pdf file)

Harrisburg Talking Points:

• A 1.5% basic education increase equals $97,222 in revenue.
• To maintain our existing programs, we need 3.74 mills of taxes--plus we will need to cut $108,000 from our budget.
• This totals approximately 6 mills of tax dollars in a rural community with a population of about 7,580 with 36% of our families with children living at or below the poverty level.
• Forty-two percent of our elementary students and 35% of our junior-senior high school students are eligible for free or reduced lunches.
• One mill of taxes in our District equals approximately $50,000.
• The Keystone School District has made AYP (Acceptable Yearly Progress on PSSA testing) every year.
• We support the concept of the Costing-out Study but find it penalizes us for being frugal.
• Our cost per pupil is $11,140.
• Our enrollment figures have increased by 11 students from 2006-07 to 2007-08.
• Our Career Center costs have increased by $125,000 from 2007-08 to 2008-09.
• The less than 2% increases aren't statewide. Districts in Eastern PA, as well as Allegheny and Erie Counties, all fare much better with basic education increases ranging from 22% in Delaware County to 6% and 10% in Erie and Allegheny Counties.