BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem Area School District will get an extra $1 million on top of money already allocated from the state's $295 million in Ready to Learn Block Grant funding for schools in 2023-24, it was announced Tuesday.
That will bring Bethlehem's total to $2,797,733.
The Ready to Learn Block Grant money can be put to a variety of uses, including expanding a school district’s social and health services, offering tutoring services during normal school hours, buying library materials, maintaining career awareness programs and even professional development for educators.
State Sen. Lisa Boscola announced the newest allocations in a news release.
“While not recurrent revenue it will help minimize the loss for this tax year. And, it remains my goal of continuing to advocate in Harrisburg for the amount of funding Bethlehem Area School District and all the school districts I represent are entitled to.”State Sen. Lisa Boscola
“This funding is critically important this year because BASD should have received Level Up funding, which was left out of the final budget,” Boscola said.
“While not recurrent revenue, [the additional allocation] will help minimize the loss for this tax year. And it remains my goal of continuing to advocate in Harrisburg for the amount of funding Bethlehem Area School District and all the school districts I represent are entitled to.”
BASD Superintendent Jack Silva said the funding "will be of great benefit to our students and teachers, as well as support local citizens who too often pick up the cost of inadequate state support of our school district.”
Boscola serves the 18th Senate District, which includes areas of Lehigh and Northampton counties.
The seven school districts in that area will get a total of $5,788,392 in Ready to Learn funding, according to the release.
