As Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] expenditures rise and revenue streams dwindle, community members are left frustrated over the lack of public input and transparency in the budgeting process.
Noel Webb of advocacy group 412 Justice said during a Dec. 4 public hearing that the district needs to adopt a transparent budgeting process that can guide it toward better, more equitable and innovative solutions.
“PPS budget should be a people’s budget and the budget isn’t accounting of how you’re going to spend our tax dollars equitably,” she said. “PPS district’s current budget process effectively freezes out the community.”
The PPS board last week introduced a preliminary general fund budget for 2024 of $714 million, a 4.2% increase from the $685 million budget adopted last year.
The budget shows a projected operating deficit of $29.6 million and to fund this without a tax increase the district will drop its fund balance below the 5% minimum prescribed by policy. Based on projections, the district’s unassigned fund balance stands at 3.2%. The district will need $21 million to comply with the fund balance policy.
During Monday’s town hall, participants expressed concerns about a perceived rushed budget process, lack of detail in the preliminary budget and potential school closures as PPS prepares for a difficult financial season.
Emily Sawyer, a parent with five kids in the district, said the budget lacks important information and precludes true public input. She added PPS should have a participatory budgeting process where budget workshops are held at the beginning of the year.
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Per PPS’ current budget timeline, the board has less than six weeks to vote on the budget once it is released.
Board member Gene Walker acknowledged some of the concerns, telling PublicSource that the budget process needs significant changes including budget workshops to take place periodically.
“As a board member, it’s frustrating and hard to really figure out what’s happening and provide input with six to eight weeks to figure it out,” he said.
Incoming board member Dwayne Barker told PublicSource that the district needs to work on building trust in the community and become as transparent as possible.
“We don’t want the public to feel like we are trying to keep things from [them] because ultimately, they should know what we’re working on,” he said.
Sandra Woolley, a member of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, said the budget lacks a visionary plan to address the issues of a growing deficit. She said the district should implement more community school models and work with the city to create safe spaces and offer more programs.
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Chief Financial Officer Ron Joseph said during a Nov. 28 workshop the district’s financial difficulties have been a long time coming, noting the district has no control over mandatory costs like charter school costs or debt service payments.
“We weren’t in a good position in previous years, and we’re not in a good position this year,” said Joseph.
PPS has received $100.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief [ESSER] funds since 2020. The district was expected to use 20% of the funds to address learning loss suffered from pandemic-related disruptions. As of November, the district has used 50% of the funds.
PPS has also used ESSER funds for one-time investments such as construction, improvements to facilities and stabilizing school staff. The district anticipates losing some programs when the funds expire in September and is currently evaluating the effectiveness of those programs.
“The budget does not adhere to the 5% board [fund balance policy], which means that going forward, looking at 2026, that we can’t rely on our fund balance to balance the budget,” Joseph said. “So we will have to seriously work toward having a close-to, if not balanced, budget in the years leading up to that including 2025 and 2026.”
With the federally granted pandemic relief ESSER funds ending next September and continued declining student enrollment, the budget reinforces the financial difficulties that PPS will face in the coming years.
PPS is currently operating at 54% of its building capacity. The district has enrolled 18,380 students for the school year 2023-23, about 270 fewer than the previous year. PPS is projected to lose over 6,000 students by 2031.
For some, this has sparked concerns about potential school closures in coming years that they feel could disproportionately impact Black and Brown students.
Valerie Webb-Allman, a district parent, said closing schools will compound the trauma for families who will have to relocate their children and for students with disabilities.
“We can't expect people to have faith in the public education system when the public education system keeps failing the communities,” she said during the town hall. “So closing schools does not work.”
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The 2024 budget revenues stand at $684 million, with $391 million or 57% of the district’s revenues coming from local taxes.
District solicitor Ira Weiss said the district can expect to see reduced earnings from the real estate tax unless there is a countywide reassessment.
Revenue from earned income tax is expected to increase by $7.5 million. The district has budgeted about $167 million in earned income tax of which $23.8 million is diverted back to the city under state law.
From state sources, PPS will receive about $178 million in basic education funding. The current funding is distributed partially through a weighted student enrollment formula. PPS comes under the state’s hold harmless provision, which guarantees the district at least as much basic education funding as it received before 2014-15, with slight increases to adjust for inflation, thus protecting the district from the fiscal effects of declining student enrollment.
In February, the state’s funding formula was deemed unconstitutional by the Commonwealth Court. The Basic Education Funding Commission is expected to complete its report on school funding in January. If changes are made to the funding formula and PPS loses its hold harmless provision, it could stand to lose $83 million in funding, said Joseph.
'A challenging budget year ahead of us'
A majority of the budget — $339 million — is allocated to salaries and benefits. Salary expenses have increased by nearly $10 million from last year. Transportation and special education costs have also slightly increased this year.
About $145 million goes toward charter school payments, a 19.7% increase from the previous year. During the last budget year, PPS paid subsidies of $19,400 for each charter student enrolled in general education and $46,515 for those in special education programs.
Joseph said the charter school costs have gone up because of increases in tuition rates and student enrollment in those schools.
“We have a challenging budget year ahead of us,” said Walker.
Joseph said the district needs to have a collaborative budgeting process in the upcoming years, look at major cost areas and have discussions about designing a district that looks at its footprint.
“We can't be blind to the fact that we have had declining enrollment and we have the same basically footprint of buildings that we've had,” he said. “Not saying that school closure is the end all, be all, but we have to look at ways that we can make sure that we're adjusting our operations to the size of the population.”
Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Jamie Wiggan.
The Fund for Investigative Journalism helped to fund this project.
