Wagner, Wolf tangle over politics of funding public schools

HARRISBURG – Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for governor, is accusing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of proposing a policy that would result in deep funding cuts to certain school districts, a claim Wolf’s campaign says is absurd since state education aid increased by $1 billion under Wolf.

Wagner stepped up his campaign’s claim Thursday in a Pittsburgh news conference. He’s insisting that Wolf wants to use a formula approved in 2016 by the Republican-controlled Legislature to direct all state school aid.

Wolf’s campaign says Wolf doesn’t support funding cuts or an immediate shift to using the formula for all school aid. Wolf’s campaign also points out that Wagner in the past has backed using the new formula to direct all school aid.

Currently, a fraction of school aid goes through the formula.

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