T/E Appears About to Get More State Money

It's not official until the governor puts his signature on the bill, but by at least one estimate The Tredyffrin-Easttown School District will be getting a net increase in state funding for 2012-2013 over the fiscal year that ends Saturday at midnight.

You read that correctly, a net increase, according to an estimate from the PA House Appropriations Committee. According to the figures made available to Patch by the office of State Rep. Warren Kampf (R-157), the T/E School District would receive $10,685,280 in state funding for: Basic Education Funding (BEF), Accountability Block Grant, Social Security, Transportation and Retirement. If the estimates released Friday hold until the Governor signs a budget, that would mean an increase in state funding for those areas of $1,596,301 over the 2011-2012 school year.

The figures published by the Republican Chairman of House Appropriations Committee could come as some relief for the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District, but may not make much of a dent in closing the projected budget shortfall the district predicts by 2015. It is at least a step, however small, in the direction of closing the gap.

Members of the T/E School Board as well as the 499 other local public school districts around the state had lobbied hard to reverse the numbers offered in Governor Tom Corbett's budget proposal made in February. On Monday as work was about to begin on a final state budget bill,

Earlier this month, the T/E School Board