Harrisburg may finally be hearing school board members' and school district administrators' pleas about Pennsylvania education funding, school officials say.

Northampton Area School District Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik, NASD Business Administrator Terry Leh and school board member Dr. Michael Baird attended a "Basic Education Funding Listening Tour" Sept. 8 at Broughal Middle School, Bethlehem.

Kovalchik told the board and administrators Monday night that the Bethlehem meeting had to do with revamping "the way that school districts receive money from the state."

A public hearing of the Basic Education Funding Commission, co-chaired by Sen. Pat M. Browne (R-16th), was held Sept. 9 at the Parkland School District administrative building, South Whitehall Township.

The hearing pertained to education economics and basic education funding.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," Kovlalchik told The Press after Monday night's meeting. "I have to commend Harrisburg for putting together the commission."

The "Listening Tour," organized by education leadership associations – Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and Pennsylvania School Board Association – in advance of the public hearing was to gather and compile testimony to submit to the funding commission.

"The more things we bombard Harrisburg with, we may get some results," said Baird.

"It's way too early to see how it would affect us," Kovalchik said at the Sept. 8 board meeting. "We don't know what the formula will be."

Kovalchik said that the NASD budget is funded 67 percent local revenue and 29 percent state revenue.

State funding of NASD has declined 6 percent during the past four years, said Kovalchik.

"School districts will not be able to sustain their expenditures," Kovalchik said.

Kovalchik said the public hearing is partly the result of "the outcry of the local taxpayer taking on the burden of funding school districts."

The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools claims "the basic educational needs of Pennsylvania's children are not being met."

The "underfunding is now so significant that the Commonwealth is failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation to maintain a 'thorough and efficient system of public education,'" states the association.

According to Kovalchik, while it was reported that state funding for NASD increased 5 percent by $479,000 for 2014-15, the actual amount was $224,000.

The higher figure was arrived at, Kovalchik, said, by combing two grants, an Accountability Block Grant, approved from the previous school year, and a Ready To Learn Block Grant.

The 15-member Basic Education Funding Commission is to develop and recommend to the General Assembly a new formula for distributing state funding for basic education to Pennsylvania school districts.

"We expect to undertake a comprehensive study of a number of factors and listen to a wide-range of testimony over the upcoming months," Browne stated on the commission's website.

"We are looking to develop realistic parameters that will ensure that every school district receives the funding required to properly provide a high-quality education to its students," Browne stated.

Act 51 of 2014 calls for the Basic Education Funding Commission to make its recommendation within a year of it being signed into law. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the legislation into law June 10.

The Basic Education Funding Commission held its inaugural and organizational meeting July 24.