Private funding saved the 2020 election in some Pennsylvania counties. Now, some GOP-led states are banning it
In Chester County, it paid for body cameras for election workers picking up mail ballots from drop boxes.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year would include a 5% increase.
The commonwealth is expected to have a $3 billion budget surplus and more than $7 billion available in American Rescue Plan dollars.
An average shrinking district saw funding increase by $3,200 per student over the past three decades, according to a January report from Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a nonprofit led by a member of former Gov. Ed Rendell’s cabinet.
Many rules around public accountability and transparency remain unwritten, or lack requirements for a detailed accounting of how the money was spent.