For the 2013-14 school year, the Susquehanna Township School District received a 3.5% increase or $3,430,116 in Pennsylvania Basic Education Funding. This is $116,457 more than its 2012-13 state BEF to the District. Additionally, Susquehanna Township School District will receive $88,433 in Accountability Block Grant funding to focus on academic achievement and level funding for special education services. Among Dauphin County's public school districts, Derry Township School District received the highest percentage increase at 5.4%. The District has the option of applying for several other state and federal grants to increase revenues. The Commonwealth's budget increased Basic Education Funding statewide by $123 million to over $5.5 billion. Most of Pennsylvania's 500 public school districts received an increase of Basic Education Funding in a range of 0.9% to 4%. Eight public school districts received exceptionally high funding increases of 10% to 16%. The highest increase in state funding was awarded to Austin Area School District which received a 22.5% increase in Basic Education Funding. The state funded the PSERS (Pennsylvania school employee pension fund) with $1,017,000,000 and Social Security payments for school employees of $495 million.