The federal government says state funding was not adequate for the highest-need schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state owes roughly $17.5 million to four districts.
Once a teacher completes the course, they'll be given a certificate they can bring to their district for professional development credit if their district and/or state allows it.
"We need sustainable, scalable investment in our schools so that we're not coming back to the table every year trying to figure out where the money is going to come from," Superintendent Carmela Levy-David said.
The budget for the 2024-25 school year would include money to cover training for school and district leaders that would coach them on "how you manage change, how you manage conflict, how you manage disagreement."
She spoke with The Inquirer about her new book; how her research shows Pennsylvania's "fair funding" formula only distributes a small fraction of the education budget equitably, and why headlines about lawmakers securing funding for their school districts are not always what they seem.
Research shows Chicago students are rebounding faster than other districts, particularly in reading, efforts such as tutoring are paying off, and the number of school social workers in CPS has doubled.
The school districts would have to prove they raised as much money as they could through local taxes and not cut employees since last year, the legislation says.
