August 2016

Some school districts have raised property taxes year after year, blaming rising pension costs, while other districts have dealt with those same increases by not raising taxes. A deep dive into the data showed that those tax increases weren’t always justified.

This project used a variety of data sources from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to show why school districts had requested property tax increases above the rate of inflation. The most common reason was pension costs. My reporting showed this has far-reaching consequences for the equality of education in the state.