The nation's highest ranking education official is singling out Pennsylvania for having the largest spending gap between rich and poor school districts in the country.
That is according to new data highlighted by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The data shows that in Pennsylvania the spending gap is 33 percent, much higher than the next closest state, Vermont, with a spending gap of 18 percent.
To address challenges with education funding, Governor Tom Wolf has previously proposed to boost the state's share of public school costs to 50 percent, up from one-third.
It is a solution Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy says will be a step in the right direction.
"The over-reliance on property taxes, local property taxes, to fund public schools automatically puts wealthier districts with higher property values at an advantage," Roy said.
But a key group of Republican lawmakers instead want to see state sales and income taxes increase, with the long term goal of abolishing school property taxes statewide.
Some Republicans say Wolf's plan to replace only a portion of school property tax collection is not enough to address the problem.
"It really looks to me like bait and switch," said Pa. Sen. David Argall, a Republican who represents Berks and Schuylkill counties. "He is suggesting a permanent increase in income, a permanent increase in sales taxes and a temporary decrease in school district property taxes."
Representative Mike Schlossberg, a Democrat from Lehigh County, supports the Governor Wolf's proposal and says the ideas proposed by the Republicans will not create the funding that is needed.
"I think we all want to eliminate the property taxes in general," Representative Schlossberg said. "The issue with that plan is it leaves us short."
The U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the gap must change.
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