A Summit Hill borough councilman has made it his mission to fight for the fair funding of Pennsylvania school districts.

Councilman David Wargo approached Nesquehoning Borough Council on Wednesday to ask officials to adopt a resolution he wrote supporting equality for funding within school districts.

Council approved Wargo’s request.

Wargo said the reason for his action is because the state is “failing to do their jobs.”

His mission began after discussions with the Panther Valley School District business manager, Jesse Walck.

Wargo said the state is supposed to follow funding formulas with regards to the public school system, and legislators are not following them.

He noted that Panther Valley School District alone is underfunded by the state by millions annually based on the funding formula.

Because of this, Wargo is hoping to educate the municipalities of the Panther Valley, as well as other boroughs, about the need to pressure legislators to follow the laws that are in place for the public school system.

“It’s not just Panther Valley,” Wargo said. “It’s across the entire state.”

The resolution that both Nesquehoning and Summit Hill passed last week says Pennsylvania uses property taxes as the primary method for the funding of school districts.

This presents a risk “to the fiscal strength and well-being of the school districts serving their constituencies present threats to the economic viability of the corresponding boroughs in which those school districts provide public education to students. …

“It is our opinion that the Panther Valley School District is not being treated fairly or equitably by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, due to its inequity in enforcing the Fair Funding to School Districts formula,” the resolution says in part.

Wargo said that because the state is not following the formulas for public education funding, it is threatening struggling school districts like Panther Valley. That results in the district continually raising taxes to balance the budget, putting a strain on the taxpayers in Summit Hill, Nesquehoning, Lansford and Coaldale.

The resolution said that this could cause a loss of tax base for both the municipalities, as well as the school district if taxpayers are taxed out of their homes.

“The loss of those taxpayers presents a very real, foreseeable, and avoidable threat to the financial stability of the municipalities and the well-being of the residents served by those school districts,” the resolution states.

Nesquehoning Borough Council President David Hawk said that council “agrees that the continuing escalation of local school taxes to balance school district budgets due to inequitable, improper and insufficient state funding threatens the ability of residents to pay their property taxes in a timely manner, maintain their properties and even continue to retain ownership their homes.

“The consequences of this decline of the tax base affects not only the school districts, but the local municipalities which also rely on the property taxes for the majority of their income to provide essential public services.

He said, “Council believes the state Legislature and governor need to take action to ensure that state school funding is adequately provided for, and equitably distributed to all school districts across the state in accordance with the approved laws.

Wargo said he plans to continue approaching boroughs regarding the resolution to bring this issue into the light and hopefully have the state take the necessary actions to correct the problem.