On Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Governor Tom Wolf signed a state budget aimed at helping the commonwealth to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic by making the largest investment in public education in state history, by investing in quality, affordable child care for parents who wish to return to the workforce, and by helping Pennsylvanians struggling with mortgage or rent payments stay in their homes.

According to the governor, the budget makes “crucial investments in our future by supporting the students and workers who will drive our economy forward in the years to come.”

The budget outlined in House Bill 1348 makes a historic $416 million increase in state funding for public education. The budget makes crucial investments to support the needs of schools and students, including a $200 million increase in the Fair Funding Formula, $100 million to support underfunded school districts through the Level Up initiative, $50 million in special education funding, $30 million for early education, $20 million for Ready to Learn, $11 million for preschool Early Intervention and $5 million for community colleges. The governor also stated that, “While there is much to celebrate in this bill, it is disappointing that we could not come together to fully provide for the needs of schools across the commonwealth. We need all public education funding to go through the fair funding formula to ensure each school district and each student in our commonwealth are getting the support they need. “