Does the ennumerator have anything to do with this?
From the BCCT:
Money coming but all's not well
By: JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times
Locally, basic education subsidies from the state range from about $3 million for Morrisville to just under $20 million for Bristol Township.
Now that the budget impasse is over in Harrisburg, it's clear that Lower Bucks County school districts are getting some additional money to cover expenses, primarily from federal stimulus funds.
But the money, earmarked for basic education and special education costs, will only be available through 2010-11.
"Yes, in two years' time it will be a very interesting question as to what happens on (both) of those fronts," said Jack Myers, Bensalem's director of business operations.
Area districts are preparing for the worst.
"We will most likely pick up the funding locally," Neshaminy business administrator Joseph Paradise said. That would mean a potentially sizeable tax increase, officials say.
But at present, local school systems will receive basic education funding increases from the state ranging from 2 percent to 4.25 percent during 2009-10, education officials said.
The funding was in limbo for about three months during the budget impasse. The state caught up with its payments to the districts this week, education department officials said.
With the agreement, basic education subsidy increases range from $59,385 for the Morrisville School District to $796,162 for the Bristol Township School District. Bristol Township receives the greatest percentage increase among local districts because it's considered less wealthy than other school systems, officials said.
Overall, Morrisville, the smallest district in Lower Bucks, will receive more than $3 million from the state to cover expenses in its mainstream classrooms during 2009-10. Bristol Township will receive about $20 million. Other local districts are somewhere in between.
State lawmakers and Gov. Ed Rendell agreed to use almost $655 million in federal stimulus funds to cover basic education costs this school year, said Michael Race, a Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman.
About $355 million of that amount is being used to match the basic education subsidy paid out last year, because the state did not have enough of its own money to do so in 2009-10, state education officials said.
The remaining $300 million in stimulus funds is being used to increase the state's basic education subsidy to the districts as part of a six-year initiative. The goal is to pump an extra $2.6 billion into public education between now and 2014 to adequately fund all schools, Race said.
Districts also are receiving federal stimulus funds to cover special education costs. The stimulus money is to be split between 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Locally, the stimulus funds for special education range from $265,549 for Morrisville to about $2.5 million for Council Rock.
The extra federal dollars devoted to special education expenses enabled the state to freeze special education subsidies for districts at 2008-09 levels, the PDE spokesman said.
