Gov. Josh Shapiro delivered his annual budget address on Feb. 4, 2025, and the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center issued the following joint statement that day in response to his budget proposal.

(Feb. 4, 2025) Last July, in a historic bipartisan agreement, the General Assembly and the governor admitted that Pennsylvania underfunds its schools by more than $4.5 billion and took the first step toward fixing it, allocating $500 million to the state’s most underfunded districts. These were necessary steps to respond to Commonwealth Court’s February 2023 decision declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding system inequitable, inadequate, and unconstitutional.

Today Gov. Shapiro rightfully reminded the General Assembly that there is still much work ahead to adequately fund our schools, proposing an additional $500 million to close the state’s shortfall, consistent with the agreement leaders reached last year. That new funding will be put to good use, extending kindergarten to full days, expanding afterschool tutoring, reopening school libraries, reducing class size in early grades, and more. 

There are other cautions in this budget, however, which the General Assembly must address. First, the current timeline for reaching adequacy remains too slow and means that today’s kindergartners will be nearing high school before schools have the funds the state admits they need to succeed. Second, the proposed allocations for basic education ($75 million) and special education ($40 million) fall far below the rate of inflation. Underfunding other line items will prevent many school districts from ever reaching adequacy, as they use that funding to fill budget holes, rather than investing in new school staff and programs. All of this makes it especially critical for the Commonwealth to finally enact the cyber charter funding reform proposed by the governor.

We also know that additional funding is needed to remedy school facilities and ensure access to high-quality pre-K – both of which the court recognized as key components of a thorough and efficient system of public education.  

A child’s time in school is a precious resource that we cannot afford to waste. We urge the General Assembly to take the baton from the governor, shorten the timeline for closing the adequacy gap, increase the basic education and special education line items, enact the cyber charter reform, and commit to a plan to bring our state into compliance. The Constitution requires it.

UPDATE July 11, 2024 – The General Assembly passed a state budget, which unfortunately did not include the long-term plan for a new, constitutional public school funding system laid out in HB 2370.

The budget does, however, calculate a target for how much additional state funding is needed for public schools. Even after artificially reducing the constitutional funding gap calculated in HB 2370 by undercounting students in poverty, both chambers of the legislature have now agreed that adequately funded public education would require, at minimum, an additional $4.5 billion in state funding distributed to the communities that need it most.

The budget begins to fill this gap with additional, desperately needed resources targeted to underfunded public schools. For the first time, the largest portion of new state education aid, called “adequacy funding,” is the portion dedicated exclusively to districts with identified funding gaps, as the Basic Education Funding Commission and the House had proposed. Here is a district-by-district breakdown of the new funding for 2024-25. But the legislature has made no commitment for future years. Now, educators and students await a long-term commitment to fill the entire unconstitutional funding gap. Read more in our statement on the 2024-25 state budget.

Check out an interactive map to see how the long-term plan for comprehensive public school funding adopted by the Pennsylvania House in June 2024 (House Bill 2370) would close the adequacy gaps across Pennsylvania. Here’s a guide:  

• New annual adequacy and tax equity funding: For each district, the map shows the additional total annual state funding per student after a seven year investment to address unconstitutionally inadequate funding and provide property tax equity. 

  • Adequacy funding:  State funding to fill each district’s adequacy gap—the difference between the resources students have currently and the median spending by successful Pennsylvania schools. 

  • Tax equity funding: Additional state funding for communities where taxpayers have paid the highest local property tax rates to make up for insufficient state funding.  

• Under the plan, no district will ever receive less state funding than they do this year, updating the state’s “hold harmless” baseline and thereby ensuring stable and predictable resources. All districts are eligible for annual increases distributed through the fair funding formula. 

View a spreadsheet of the impact of this plan for every school district.  

A transformational plan for strong public schools in Pennsylvania - House Bill 2370

Underfunding in Pennsylvania public schools is widespread, fueled by insufficient state support. The students who need the most have had the least, because of where they live: urban, suburban and rural communities that lack sufficient wealth to meet the needs of their students in every corner of the commonwealth. 

In Feb. 2023, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that this is unconstitutional, and must change. Our students have a fundamental right to education, but for too long, they have been going without basic resources because of a funding system that relies heavily on local wealth.

For generations, students in low-wealth communities have lacked basic core resources: enough teachers, reading and math specialists, libraries, safe buildings, up-to-date curriculum, technology and more—the tools they need to prepare for life in the 21st century.  

We can fix this. A serious long-term plan for a new public school funding system that lives up to the promise of our state constitution has now passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The plan, House Bill 2370, would provide funding based on what students need to succeed, not what communities can afford—starting next school year.  

HB 2370 passed the House with bipartisan support on June 10, 2024. This plan would:  

• Boost current state funding to 367 underfunded school districts by $5.1 billion to fill constitutional adequacy gaps, through annual increases each year for seven years. 

• Provide $1 billion in property tax equity support for communities facing the highest local tax levels due to state underfunding 

• Ensure stability for all 500 school districts, particularly those with declining enrollments, by guaranteeing that they will continue to receive no less than their current level of state funding. 

• Significantly reform cyber charter school funding. 

Learn more about this plan and how it was developed in this detailed explanation. 

Gov. Shapiro has endorsed this plan, and in his budget address, he said something all Pennsylvanians should agree on: “No one here should be OK with an unconstitutional education system for our kids.”  

Our school funding system is unconstitutional, and our students have been paying the price. Now there’s a plan to fix it. But it’s up to all of us to tell our leaders to finish the job for our students and pass this plan into law.

UPDATE July 11, 2024 – The General Assembly passed a state budget, which unfortunately did not include the long-term plan for a new, constitutional public school funding system laid out in HB 2370.

The budget does, however, calculate a target for how much additional state funding is needed for public schools. Even after artificially reducing the constitutional funding gap calculated in HB 2370 by undercounting students in poverty, both chambers of the legislature have now agreed that adequately funded public education would require, at minimum, an additional $4.5 billion in state funding distributed to the communities that need it most.

The budget begins to fill this gap with additional, desperately needed resources targeted to underfunded public schools. For the first time, the largest portion of new state education aid, called “adequacy funding,” is the portion dedicated exclusively to districts with identified funding gaps, as the Basic Education Funding Commission and the House had proposed. But the legislature has made no commitment for future years. Now, educators and students await a long-term commitment to fill the entire unconstitutional funding gap. Read more in our statement on the 2024-25 state budget.

Check out an interactive map to see how the long-term plan for comprehensive public school funding adopted by the Pennsylvania House in June 2024 would close the adequacy gaps across Pennsylvania.

Underfunding in Pennsylvania public schools is widespread, fueled by insufficient state support. Hundreds of thousands of students in cities, small towns and suburbs are going without the basic resources they need to realize their potential and succeed.

Students in Johnstown are going without the support of reading specialists. Just 15% of Pennsylvania’s lowest wealth schools have librarians. Nine buildings in Allentown School District are more than 100 years old and need extensive maintenance, and they are far from alone: children frequently lose out on learning due to unsafe school facilities. While the American School Counselor Association recommends a school counselor ratio of one to 250 students, Pottstown School District has two counselors for 991 middle schoolers and two for 990 high school students.

Our students have a fundamental right to education, but for too long, that right has been thwarted by a public school funding system that relies on local wealth. In Feb. 2023, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that this is unconstitutional, and must change.

Now, there’s a serious long-term plan to fix this injustice: Pennsylvania House Bill 2370, which passed the House with bipartisan support on June 10, 2024. The plan would provide funding based on what students need to succeed, not what communities can afford.

This comprehensive school funding reform builds on months of careful work. After the court’s decision in the school funding lawsuit, the Basic Education Funding Commission, a panel of legislators and designees of Gov. Shapiro, met to develop a plan to fix Pennsylvania’s inadequate and inequitable funding system. Throughout 2023, the commission heard from educators, parents, and experts at 11 public hearings and received more than 1,000 public comments.  

The commission put together a final majority report, a plan for a fundamental change to the way we fund our public schools. HB 2370 would put this plan into law.  

Instead of continuing to fund public schools based on local wealth and Harrisburg politics, the plan calculates how much funding is needed in every school district and establishes a plan to deliver the necessary funding. 

The commission’s report found that, altogether, Pennsylvania public schools are underfunded by $5.4 billion. HB 2370 would provide $5.1 billion in additional annual state funding—a constitutional adequacy investment—to students in underfunded public schools over seven years of annual increases, closing the gap in 367 school districts found to have fewer resources than their students need.   

This funding gap was computed by calculating the median spending by school districts that meet Pennsylvania’s academic goals, considering both basic and special education costs, relative to their students’ needs. The bill sets that as the funding target for all school districts.  

This plan also recognizes that local taxpayers have been picking up the slack for insufficient state funding at a high cost to communities. HB 2370 also calls for $970 million in property tax equity funding, directed to districts where local taxpayers pay the highest tax rates relative to their community’s wealth.  

These investments for public schools and our communities would be phased in over seven years, and would increase total public education funding statewide by 15%. Check out the interactive map to see the impact of this plan. 

The plan also provides stable and predictable funding to every school district, even those that were not found to be underfunded. HB 2370 would reset the “base” of the state’s hold harmless policy—which would mean that no school district will ever receive less state funding than they do this year.  

View a spreadsheet of the impact of HB 2370 for every school district.  

If fully implemented, this plan will mean thousands more teachers, counselors, librarians, and school nurses delivering what every child deserves: the opportunity to thrive. A recent analysis of the economic impact of this investment concluded that the plan would lead to significant improvements in student outcomes and long-term economic benefits for the state.  

The plan is not perfect. It does not include additional funding for pre-K, which educators and the court agree is an essential resource, or for addressing the enormous need to upgrade school facilities. Seven years is a long wait for students. But make no mistake: This plan is a game-changer.  

We have one—and only one—long-term plan on the table for public school funding that respects students’ fundamental constitutional right to education. That’s HB 2370. Use this tool to find your state senator and tell them to pass this plan into law. 

The Details: Adequacy Funding

The Basic Education Funding Commission’s adopted majority report found that Pennsylvania public schools are underfunded by $5.4 billion. This calculation used Pennsylvania’s own measures for the needs of students who require more support, such as students in poverty and students who are learning English.  

Adequacy funding calculates what it would cost to provide every school district with the same level of resources as academically successful districts, relative to the needs of their student body. For more details, read this public testimony from Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, which brought the school funding lawsuit along with Education Law Center - PA and O’Melveny.

This underfunding can be found in every kind of community: small towns, big cities, and suburbs.  

• Nearly 3 out of 4 school districts lack the funding they need to support student success – 367 districts out of Pennsylvania’s 500. 

• The median district with a shortfall has a shortfall of $2,568 per student. 

• The lowest-wealth school districts account for 26% of the state’s students, but 62% of the statewide adequacy gap.  

• Black and Latino students are concentrated in these districts, with 43% of the state’s Black and Latino students attending districts in the lowest-wealth 20%. 

• Under the long-term plan, 87 school districts, serving more than 520,000 students, would receive adequacy investments of $4,000 or more per pupil. 

  • These districts include Shenandoah Valley in rural Schuylkill County, with an enrollment of 1,200—and 24 other small districts with enrollments of fewer than 1,500 students—as well as the School District of Philadelphia, the state’s largest, serving 195,000 students.  

The plan tasks the state of Pennsylvania with providing $5.1 billion in additional annual funding, phased in over seven years, filling 94% of this gap. The state of Pennsylvania would finally take on its fair share of responsibility for funding public schools.  

The remaining $291 million local share is left to school districts making local tax efforts at the 33rd percentile or below to ensure fairness with school districts who face smaller adequacy shortfalls because their taxpayers are paying more. The plan does not require increases in local taxes in any district.  

The Details: Tax Equity

In Pennsylvania’s current upside-down public school funding system, many of the least wealthy communities in the commonwealth are paying the highest property tax rates, trying to provide resources for their students in the face of state underfunding. 

The long-term plan recognizes the efforts of taxpayers in these communities by providing $970 million in annual property tax equity funding, phased in over seven years, to 196 school districts where local taxpayers are paying tax rates, relative to their local wealth, at or above the 66th percentile for districts in Pennsylvania.   

A few school districts with local wealth far above the state median that also choose to collect local taxes at high rates are excluded from this supplement using the following formula for a fractional local capacity index: dividing a district’s local capacity per weighted student by the median value, subtracting one, and then subtracting that result from one. The value is one for districts below the median. 

What about the BEF Commission’s minority report?

A minority made up of Republican commission members also released a report, which was not adopted by the Basic Education Funding Commission. This report does not attempt to determine the funding public schools need to meet the standard set by the court’s decision.  

Both reports, however, agree that the current funding system is unconstitutional and must change, and agree on many of the educational interventions that will make a difference for children. These strategies—including career and technical education, evidence-based student support, and school safety—all require more dedicated professional staff, and all cost money that is not available in hundreds of Pennsylvania school districts under the current funding system. Such interventions are listed in HB 2370 as appropriate uses for additional state funding. 

School officials and attorneys who won the Pennsylvania school funding lawsuit say HB 2370 would be “transformational” for PA students

June 10, 2024 - The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has approved a groundbreaking, comprehensive school funding bill, House Bill 2370, amending the state’s school code. The plan writes into law the robust seven-year funding plan developed by the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission in January 2024 in response to Commonwealth Court’s landmark 2023 ruling.

The bill was approved on Monday afternoon by a bipartisan vote of 107-94, winning the support of all Democrats who voted as well as 5 Republicans.

The bill is the House response to the court order requiring state officials to craft a new constitutional school funding system that ensures all students access to a “comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education” and does not discriminate against students in low-wealth communities.

The legislation commits the state to raise funding levels for 367 underfunded districts over seven years by $5.1 billion to fill adequacy gaps, and it provides $1 billion in financial relief over the same period to communities that have shouldered a heavy local tax burden due to state underfunding. It also includes reforms to the portion of the school code covering cyber charter schools.

See how much additional funding each Pennsylvania school district would receive here.

“We applaud members of the House for adopting this breakthrough legislation. Pennsylvania students have waited decades for such decisive action,” said Education Law Center legal director Maura McInerney. “This bill is a transformative long-term plan to finally close the state’s glaring, unconstitutional resource gaps. It creates meaningful, new opportunities for our children and their futures by substantially increasing state funding to underfunded districts each year for seven years.”

“We are headed towards a before and after moment for the children of Pennsylvania,” said Public Interest Law Center senior attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg. “The most unfair school funding system in the nation will be no more, as thousands of new teachers, counselors, librarians, and school nurses deliver what every child deserves: the opportunity to thrive. We urge the Senate to promptly pass this bill.”

HB 2370 won passage in the House Education Committee on June 4. With passage in the full House, it now goes to the Senate for consideration. The House and Senate are required by law to agree on a budget for 2024-25 by June 30, and updates to the school code typically are a part of the budget process.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has endorsed the plan, and his proposed 2024-25 budget includes a $1.1 billion basic education funding increase that is aligned with the first-year plan in HB 2370.

Additional comments on the House vote from petitioners in the successful Pennsylvania school funding lawsuit:

“Unconstitutional underfunding means that educators in Shenandoah Valley create collateral damage, shifting scarce resources to some students who need them at the expense of others,” said Brian Waite, superintendent of Shenandoah Valley School District. “Today’s plan would give us the support to provide a public education that lives up to all our students’ amazing potential. I applaud the House of Representatives, and I hope the Senate will join them soon. Our kids are worth it.”

“Today, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives stepped up to lead with a public school funding plan that lives up to the promise of our constitution,” said Dr. Keith Miles, superintendent of the School District of Lancaster. “This long-term plan will fill school funding gaps that have grown for decades in communities like Lancaster, where students who need more support often get less because of insufficient local wealth. Now, this bill must become law. Our future depends on it.”

“Thank you, representatives, for passing a plan that will help public schools meet the needs of all their students,” said Dr. Amy Arcurio, superintendent of Greater Johnstown School District. “This sustained, predictable funding would be transformative. For the first time in many years, Greater Johnstown and districts like it could make decisions based on what our kids need so they can build the future of Pennsylvania, not what our communities can afford.”

“I applaud today’s historic plan for Pennsylvania public school funding,” said Dr. Brian Costello, superintendent of Wilkes-Barre Area School District. “I am especially proud that Luzerne County representatives showed that helping children realize their potential is something both parties can agree on. There’s no limit to what young people in places like Wilkes-Barre can achieve when we provide the resources they need—and this is a groundbreaking long-term plan to make that happen. Invest in our students, and let them show us what they can do.”

“Today’s bill, if it becomes law, could be transformative to my students and my Panther Valley community,” said Dr. David McAndrew, superintendent of Panther Valley School District. “Our local taxpayers try as hard as they can to support our schools, but because we are not wealthy, our kids are still going without the teachers, technology and support they need. Today’s plan is a serious proposal to fix it. Seven years is too long to wait, but if we see this plan through, it will provide the meaningful opportunity, regardless of wealth, that our students deserve. Every Senator needs to join in to get this passed.”

“Today, members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives showed that they take their constitutional duty to our students seriously,” said Dr. Eric Becoats, superintendent of William Penn School District. “For too long, William Penn educators and students have had to ‘do more with less:’ less counseling, less remedial support, and opportunities that are less than any child deserves. But kids shouldn’t have to ‘do more with less.’ They should have what they need. This plan would deliver it.”

“This bill is a win for rural communities across Pennsylvania who depend on sufficient, sustained and predictable state funding for public schools,” said Ed Albert, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. “I applaud the House of Representatives for passing a plan that serves all public school students and lifts every community up, rather than pitting them against each other to fight for a bigger slice of a pie that’s too small.”

“Today could be the start of a new and just future for public school funding in Pennsylvania,” said Stacey Taylor, president of the NAACP Pennsylvania state conference. “Black students and students of color have borne the brunt of Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional and inequitable public school funding system, and they are more likely to be educated in schools that have been deeply shortchanged. Today’s plan to base public school funding on student need, not local wealth, could begin to right this deep wrong.”

Statement from Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center on HB 2370, comprehensive public school funding legislation  

The Pennsylvania House Education Committee passed House Bill 2370 on June 4: groundbreaking, comprehensive school funding legislation that will, if passed into law, transform the lives of thousands of Pennsylvania students by establishing a long-term plan to equitably and adequately fund our public schools according to student needs.  

H.B. 2370 begins to answer the call to action required by Commonwealth Court, which ruled that our school funding system is unconstitutional—finding that students in low-wealth school districts are being denied their constitutional right to a quality education.

The legislation passed by the committee today would write into law the recommendations of the Basic Education Funding Commission’s majority report, which used an analysis of current costs of school districts that are meeting state academic goals to set a funding target for every school district based on student need and offered a seven-year plan for meeting those targets.  

Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed this plan and hs put forward a first-year investment in his proposed 2024-25 budget aligned with this vision. This legislation would finish the job, putting into law the entire plan to close school funding gaps laid out by the commission.   

Find out what this legislation would mean for every school district in Pennsylvania in this spreadsheet, with adequacy shortfalls calculated using the most current state data.  

The legislation would boost state funding levels to 367 underfunded Pennsylvania school districts by $5.1 billion through annual increases of $728 million in state funding each year for seven years. It includes $1 billion in state support for communities facing the highest local property taxes due to state underfunding. It also ensures stability for districts with declining enrollments by guaranteeing that they will continue to receive no less than their current level of state funding. The legislation also significantly reforms cyber charter school funding.  

Pennsylvania students face unconstitutional resource gaps that have built for decades, fueled by a two-tiered school funding system dependent on local wealth. This legislation recognizes that these gaps cannot be closed in just one year. The long-term commitment and annual funding targets ensure that our educators can plan, our leaders can be held accountable, and our students can see the benefits.   

We urge all members of the General Assembly to pass this legislation.  

Watch the House Education Committee meeting and vote here. 

February 7, 2024 - One year ago today, Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional and must be reformed, ruling in favor of petitioners in the Pennsylvania school funding lawsuit.

Now, there is a potentially transformational plan on the table, developed by the Basic Education Funding Commission and affirmed by Governor Josh Shapiro in his Feb. 6 budget address, to deliver resources to public schools based on what students need, not what communities can afford.

Today, parents, students, educators and lawmakers from across Pennsylvania gathered in Harrisburg, organized by PA Schools Work, to commemorate this anniversary and read quotes from testimony and the court’s decision. Watch the event here. Read the prepared remarks from representatives of Education Law Center-PA and the Public Interest Law Center below.

Opening remarks from Deborah Gordon Klehr, Executive Director of Education Law Center-PA

Happy anniversary!

I’m Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center. We’re a member of the PA Schools Work coalition and one of the two law centers that worked with school districts, families and organizations that challenged the state funding system in court.

Today is the first anniversary of a big, big day for Pennsylvania public school students and also for all of us who have tried so hard to achieve an adequate, equitable, and racially just school funding system.

Last year on Feb. 7, Commonwealth Court came out with a decisive ruling in our favor. 786 pages!

The ruling declared the state funding system unconstitutional.

It declared that education is a fundamental right.

It was a win for equity in education, for students, and for everyone in our state.

The court recognized that all children CAN learn when given the proper tools.

The court said that inadequate funding discriminates against students in low-wealth districts and that there is NO justification for denying students in low-wealth districts a quality education.

The court told all the parties to work together on a plan to ensure that all children can receive a comprehensive, effective public education.

The court’s decision was a powerful, urgent mandate for change. It was so compelling that it was not appealed.

So. Where are we, one year later?

State officials launched a Basic Education Funding commission to come up with a plan – a remedy to the funding system. The commission held hearings, many of you here today helped educate commission members, and last month, they adopted a report.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a big step in the right direction, a serious plan for fair school funding.

Finally, we have a plan that says how much our children need.

And yesterday that plan was the basis for a historic budget proposal from Governor Shapiro, who is proposing to implement year 1 of the commission’s plan. He wants to increase education spending by $1.8 billion in this year’s budget.

What happened yesterday moved us closer to fixing how our schools are funded. Obstacles remain, but we are on a path that could be transformational for generations of Pennsylvania children.

Today we gather not just to celebrate the anniversary of our Court victory but also to talk to legislators about making the right to quality education a reality in Pennsylvania.

And what’s next is a reminder about what the decision says, including testimony on conditions in schools that the judge cited.

On the very first day of testimony in the trial, the superintendent of Panther Valley School District described a school where 75 kindergartners had to share a single toilet. As we think about those 75 kindergartners who had to wait on line, we are going to hear 75 short quotes from the court ruling. Let’s begin.

Closing remarks from Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, Senior Attorney for the Public Interest Law Center

One year ago, Commonwealth Court found our public school funding system unconstitutional.

And so, now what? No one bothered to so much as appeal the decision. So it is final. All that is left to do is fix it.

Here is what a solution must mean:

First, rather than small bore fights each year, we instead identify what it takes to help each child succeed, and then we meet those needs, no matter their wealth, their race, or their zip code.

That means that when a child needs a smaller class size to learn effectively, we give it to her.

That means that when a child needs a reading specialist to teach her to read, we give it to her.

That means when a child needs school-based counseling to deal with trauma, we give it to her.

That means when a building is overly hot, overly crowded, or filled with lead paint or asbestos, that we give that student and her classmates the kind of facilities we would want for our own children.

In technical terms, that means we actually determine funding targets for each district, and then we meet them. No more hiding the problem. Identify what each school needs.

The Basic Education Funding Commission did that job. Governor Shapiro did that job, just yesterday.

What did they determine schools need?

The answer, according to Governor Shapiro and the Commission—and you can look this up right now on PDE’s website—is $5.4 billion dollars, $5.1 billion of which is supposed to come from the state. $5.1 billion.

But that is not money for money’s sake. It is money to infuse our schools with the professionals—teachers, counselors, tutors, librarians—that can change the trajectory of a child’s life, and fix the buildings that are crumbling around them.

This means, of course, we need every single legislator to demand passage of the Governor’s budget. But we won’t end the crisis in one year—the scope of the problem is too big.

So this budget is only step one. It will only get us part of the way there. There is a step two, three, four, five, six, and seven.

So here is what is really critical: we need every single legislator to also enact legislation that will ensure that each year we take one more step, and close the entire $5.1 billion shortfall.

We won’t close the entire gap this year. But we must enact the plan that will get us there, from start to finish.

Which gets to all of you. From the moment we filed this case we told everyone who would listen that no court decision alone could solve this problem. That we needed to pair a clear court ruling with a public who demands the system be fixed once and for all.

You cannot just leave it up to the lawyers.

If we want the decision to be real, and to be real before a Kindergartner reaches adolescence, we all must be engaged, every single one of you.

So here is my challenge to you. This week: call your elected officials. Start with the Governor himself. Call his office. Thank him for the bold step he took.

And then demand from the Governor and General Assembly the enactment of a complete, multi-year plan to provide children what they need.

We will of course go back to Court if there is not a solution. We will use every tool that exists to force this system to give children what they need. But the best way that we deal with this urgent injustice is to gather together, and fix this now.

The Governor has put his hand up to lead. We need to stand behind him, pass his budget, and pass legislation to permanently end this injustice once and for all.

Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center issued this joint statement in response to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s annual budget address on Feb. 6, 2024.

We commend Gov. Shapiro for today’s historic commitment to address the needs of all Pennsylvania’s school children. Last year Gov. Shapiro promised to develop a plan to bring Pennsylvania’s school funding system into constitutional compliance. Building on the work of the Basic Education Funding Commission, he has kept that promise, and we applaud him for it. Today’s proposal includes every first-year recommendation proposed by the commission.

If fully implemented over the next seven years, the commission’s plan will mean thousands more teachers, counselors, librarians, and school nurses delivering what every child deserves: the opportunity to thrive. We look forward to legislation backing up that long-term plan, with annual targets so that school districts can plan, our leaders can be held accountable, and students can see the benefits.

There remains work ahead. The seven-year timeline proposed by the commission to implement the plan is too long, and it does not yet include funding for critical strategies like high-quality pre-kindergarten programs. But we recognize his proposal for what it is: a bold, historic first step towards a system that honors the limitless potential of our students and delivers the future our communities and our children deserve. We are ready to stand with the governor in advocating for its passage.

On the governor’s stated support for a school voucher program: Pennsylvania’s first obligation is to bring its public education system into constitutional compliance. Commonwealth Court’s decision is entirely focused on ensuring that our Commonwealth provides a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education to all Pennsylvania students. Funds spent on vouchers for private schools sanction discrimination against students, lead to worse outcomes by any measure, and don’t bring us a dollar closer to compliance with the court’s ruling. 

One year after the governor and General Assembly were ordered to enact a plan to remedy the unconstitutional funding system, we have before us one—and only one—plan that answers the court’s command: the plan adopted by the Basic Education Funding Commission and affirmed today by the governor. 

Statements from superintendents of school district petitioners in the Pennsylvania school funding lawsuit

“Today Governor Shapiro demonstrated his belief in the children of the William Penn School District, and in the entire Commonwealth,” said Dr. Eric Becoats, superintendent of William Penn School District. “By including in his budget the full year-one recommendation from the Basic Education Funding Commission, we are on the path to provide resources for our children that have long been deferred. If carried out over seven years, this plan would be the end of our students living by the unacceptable slogan ‘do more with less.’ These funds will allow us to provide additional teachers and support services (counselors, social workers and health therapists) to the schools and students that most deserve them.”

 “I applaud Governor Shapiro for taking real action for public schools in communities like mine by putting forward the first year of a transformative plan,” said Dr. Brian Waite, superintendent of Shenandoah Valley School District. “Facing enormous funding gaps, educators in Shenandoah Valley make impossible choices for our students every day, shifting insufficient resources to some students who need them at the expense of others. Now we have a real plan in Harrisburg to bridge those gaps, and to give us the chance to make choices based on maximizing our students’ amazing potential, not minimizing collateral damage.”

 “Today’s budget proposal could be the start of transformational change for my students,” said Dr. David McAndrew, superintendent of Panther Valley School District. “It means more reading specialists, counselors, teachers, and social workers, support that has been denied because of a lack of local wealth in our community. I hope that our leaders in Harrisburg can make this multi-year proposal a reality faster than seven years—our kids have unmet needs right now—but the governor’s plan provides the meaningful opportunity that children in Panther Valley and across Pennsylvania deserve.”

“Thank you, Governor Shapiro, for putting forward a budget plan that will help public schools meet the needs of all their students,” said Dr. Amy Arcurio, superintendent of Greater Johnstown School District. “The sustained, predictable funding that the long-term plan begun by this budget provides would be transformative. Our limited local wealth would no longer lead to a triage for essential educational resources. Instead, we could provide the tools in Greater Johnstown to give our learners a meaningful opportunity to become what we know they can be—the people who build the future of Pennsylvania.”

“I applaud Governor Shapiro’s historic commitment to support students in public schools across Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Brian Costello, superintendent of Wilkes-Barre Area School District. “Young people in places like Wilkes-Barre can achieve incredible things when we’re able to provide the support they need—and this proposal is the start of a long-term plan to make that possible. I’m asking our lawmakers to pass this budget, invest in our students, and let them show us all what they can do.”

“Today, Governor Shapiro provided the leadership necessary to properly fund Pennsylvania schools, building on the work of the Basic Education Funding Commission,” said Dr. Keith Miles, superintendent of the School District of Lancaster. “These resources are essential for us provide the academic interventions, specialized instruction, and mental health supports our students need without undue burden on our local taxpayers.”

The proposal sets targets for adequate funding—$5.4 billion statewide—in every school district, based on student need and current spending in successful districts

Joint statement from Education Law Center PA and the Public Interest Law Center

Today, the Basic Education Funding Commission took the first step towards developing a public school funding system based on what students need statewide—not on local wealth. We applaud the commissioners for taking their constitutional duty seriously, and putting forward and adopting a plan that, if fully implemented, would make a life-changing difference for our students.

The task before us is clear: Governor Shapiro and the legislative leaders who advanced this transformative proposal must turn this plan into action. This year, we must take real steps to end Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional two-tiered public school funding system and the denial of basic resources to hundreds of thousands of students.

Commonwealth Court was clear: “All witnesses agree that every child can learn. It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”

For decades, this duty has been ignored, with state funding for public schools based on political convenience. But today’s proposal shows that many legislative leaders, and Governor Shapiro, are ready to keep this constitutional promise to our children.

What the commission’s report proposes

The Commission set a measured and meaningful target for what it would cost for every school district to provide the comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education required by the constitution and affirmed by Commonwealth Court’s decision. The $5.4 billion target for adequate funding statewide would increase total public education funding statewide by 17% over seven years, targeted to students in low-wealth districts that have been shortchanged for decades. 

It is based on what the school districts who meet Pennsylvania’s academic goals are currently spending, excluding only high-spending outliers. The target includes special education, classroom instruction, remedial support, career and technical education, principals, counselors, and more—the same essential resources our current system denies to students in low-wealth districts, as the court decision found.

Seven years is a longer wait than our students should face, and we believe this target should be met before current middle schoolers graduate high school. But this target is the start of a public school funding system that provides our students with the support they need to reach their potential—what they deserve, and legally must receive.

In addition to creating a fund for closing adequacy gaps, the proposal would provide a $200 million annual increase through the current Basic Education Funding formula, ensuring that all districts will see state funding increases.

This proposal is not perfect. It includes $300 million as Pennsylvania’s first meaningful state investment in school facilities in nearly a decade, but that is just a small down-payment on an immense need for safe and healthy facilities identified by Commonwealth Court. The report also does not include investments in PreK education that the court identified as fundamental to a constitutional public education system. We urge legislators and the Governor to work together to address these essential needs for our students.

We are hopeful that the coming state budget will include a concrete plan to make this proposal a reality—including a substantial first-year commitment and firm funding targets year-by-year—so that our educators can plan, our leaders can be held accountable, and our students can be sure to see the benefits.

A minority of Republican commission members released their own report, which was not adopted by the Commission. It does not attempt to determine the funding public schools need to meet the standard set by Commonwealth Court’s decision—which the Commission itself committed to responding to. That decision was released nearly a year ago, and it was not appealed. The Commission held 11 public hearings in every corner of the state. The time for action is now, and we are hopeful that all legislators recognize their constitutional duty to ensure that every student receives an effective, comprehensive, contemporary education that our state Constitution requires.

Note: This piece was first published as a guest editorial in Penn Live on December 23, 2023. It lays out the critical importance of the upcoming report from the Basic Education Funding Commission, due January 11, 2024. The commission is charged with developing a plan for a constitutional public school funding system in response to Commonwealth Court’s decision in the school funding lawsuit.

By Claudia De Palma, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, and Maura McInerney, legal director at Education Law Center-PA.

Each year in Carbon County’s Panther Valley School District, the district must choose which vital resources their students receive, and which they must go without.

Elementary school class sizes can reach 28, often with no teachers’ aides, even in kindergarten. At any given time in the small district, 10 teachers are filling in classes outside their certified subject. The district’s student population is growing rapidly, but there is no clear path to pay for the new school they need. Instead, elementary school students learn inside a 60-year-old building with no air conditioning, in a time of frequent heat waves.

This is not a Panther Valley problem, but a statewide tragedy that is playing out across the commonwealth: the triaging of the futures of hundreds of thousands of children, because of Pennsylvania’s inadequate system of funding public schools.

It means school principals in Greater Johnstown choosing which of their struggling readers get time with a reading specialist; teachers in overcrowded kindergartens in Delaware County deciding which of their students get attention and support; and educators in Shenandoah Valley teaching two classes at the same time in the same room.

As a landmark decision from Commonwealth Court in February in our school funding lawsuit made plain, the triage, along with the impossible choices it creates, is also unconstitutional. The court declared that insufficient state funding and an over reliance on local wealth deprive children of their rights to a contemporary, effective education.

As Gov. Josh Shapiro – who filed a brief in support of the case while attorney general – explained in his first budget address, the court’s well-supported decision was almost certain to stand. And indeed, it was not appealed.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do right by our kids, to fund our schools,” the governor said.

The next stage in this journey – deciding how much more funding is needed and how to provide it – is happening now. The Basic Education Funding Commission, a bipartisan panel of legislators and Shapiro administration staff, has been working to develop a plan for a new funding system. Testimony the commission heard from across the state repeatedly echoed the same themes: State funding is inadequate, and inequity is its defining feature.

The commission’s January 11 deadline to issue its report is less than a month away. It is a fork in the road for the future of the commonwealth.

Read more at Penn Live.

Their testimony described Commonwealth Court’s decision, tasks before the commission, and the effects of the current unconstitutional funding system on students.

Wednesday, September 13 - Attorneys from Education Law Center-PA and Public Interest Law Center and superintendents from Panther Valley School District and Wilkes-Barre Area School District – who won a historic victory in their school funding case in Commonwealth Court in February – had their opportunity to testify before Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding Commission on Wednesday, Sept. 13 in Harrisburg.

The 15-member commission is holding a series of 10 hearings to develop a plan in response to the Commonwealth Court ruling, which found that the state is not fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to maintain a “thorough and efficient system of public education” and mandated that state officials develop a school funding system that ensures “all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.” Wednesday’s hearing was the second in the series. View a recording of the testimony below.

Here are some highlights from the testimony of these four commission witnesses.

Testimony of Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center:

“Much of the Court’s opinion in this case rested upon a foundational understanding: ‘every child can learn, regardless of individual circumstances, with the right resources.’ Once you accept this basic tenet, which was true in 1874 when the guarantee of a thorough and efficient education was added to the Constitution, and which as ‘[a]ll witnesses agree[d]’ at trial, is true today, everything that follows is clear.”

An appendix to Urevick-Ackelsberg’s testimony outlines key findings from the Court’s decision.

Testimony of Maura McInerney, legal director at Education Law Center-PA:

“The Court’s decision provides a roadmap for this Commission to develop a constitutionally compliant school funding system and the decision must inform the work of this body. First, the Court identified “essential elements of a thorough and efficient system of public education” to serve all students. Second, the Court enumerated specific drivers of inequities that must be addressed and reformed.”

Testimony of David McAndrew, superintendent of Panther Valley School District:

“Last week, temperatures were above 90 degrees, and I had a choice to make. I could either dismiss school early, causing our students to miss half a day of education, or keep school open through the afternoon in uncomfortable conditions for young children. I chose to keep school open for the full day, but either choice meant giving students less than they deserve. If my district had adequate resources, I would not have had to make that choice at all.”

Testimony of Brian Costello, superintendent of Wilkes-Barre Area School District:

“I know Wilkes-Barre Area. All my life, I have seen the incredible things we can achieve when we are given the chance. The court’s decision is clear: every child can learn, and it is up to us to make this promise a reality in Pennsylvania public schools. Invest in the future of Pennsylvania, and let our students show you what they can do.”

In these remarks to the commission, our witnesses emphasized that to comply with the court order, the commission’s report must address four key tasks:

1. Determine adequacy targets for each district based on student need and current education costs, and the total cost to meet the constitutional standard for adequate funding;

2. Calculate funding targets that also address unmet needs beyond K-12 basic education funding – needs identified by the court as critical to ensuring meaningful opportunities for all the state’s public school students, such as facilities, special education, and pre-K;

3. Establish a fair and equitable “state share” for those targets so that low-wealth school districts can reach adequate funding at a reasonable tax effort; and

4. Develop a reasonable timeline to fully fund a constitutionally compliant school system that reflects the urgency of the problem.

Video of the testimony from each of the hearings is available on the commission’s website, as well as a schedule of upcoming hearings and a comment form for members of the public to offer feedback to the commission.

Commonwealth Court’s February 2023 decision finding our school funding system unconstitutional was crystal clear: Now is the time to build a public school funding system that ensures that children in every community have the resources they need to succeed academically, civically, and socially.

The work to build a new school funding system in response to the Court’s ruling has begun, with a series of hearings held by the Basic Education Funding Commission—a bipartisan panel of legislators and Pennsylvania education officials.

The commission is hearing testimony in public hearings, starting September 12, across Pennsylvania from educators, parents, and experts. All hearings will be livestreamed on the commission’s website. To stay in the loop with information about public hearings throughout the fall, sign up for our email list. View a complete list of upcoming hearings and videos of past hearings.

You can help stand up for strong public schools! The Basic Education Funding Commission would like to hear from Pennsylvania parents, students, educators, and taxpayers. Please consider sending the commission a brief comment through their online form.

Speak from the heart. What would sufficient funding to meet students’ needs mean for your community? How have your children been impacted by underfunding in public schools? What would investments in quality public schools mean for our future of our commonwealth?

Your advocacy can make it clear to our legislators and the governor that Pennsylvanians are demanding a public school funding system that fulfills our constitution's promise.

Many of our leaders in Harrisburg have pledged to develop a plan for a constitutional funding system in time for next year's state budget process.

The first step: State leaders must determine what level of funding is needed to allow students in every community to attend a public school that provides the meaningful opportunities guaranteed by the constitution. Right now, Pennsylvania does not even attempt to determine how much funding public schools need, but we know they are missing the mark by billions of dollars.

This must include funding for special education, pre-K, and school facilities, in addition to K-12 instruction. More state support must be directed to the students who need it most in low-wealth districts — urban, suburban and rural.

During the four month trial to fund our schools, you heard how our current two-tiered system’s overreliance on local wealth impacts our kids — the students who need the most have the least, because the state shortchanges their communities. As the Court wrote, low-wealth districts “are deprived of the same opportunities and resources” as more affluent areas.

The time is now to ensure that Pennsylvania builds a public education system that gives every student the resources they need to learn, no matter where they live.

Thank you for your commitment to strong public schools in every Pennsylvania community.

Joint Statement from Education Law Center - PA, Public Interest Law Center and O’Melveny on Legislative Leaders’ Decision Not to Appeal Commonwealth Court School Funding Ruling

House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler and Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward will not appeal Commonwealth Court’s decision finding that Pennsylvania’s public school funding system violates the state constitution. The deadline was Friday, July 21 at midnight. With the decision by legislative leaders not to appeal the comprehensive, decisive Feb. 7 school funding order, the decision is now final and there is no excuse for state lawmakers to delay action any further.

Commonwealth Court has, per its June 21 opinion denying legislative leaders’ motion for post-trial relief, “task[ed] Respondents with the challenge of delivering a system of public education that the Pennsylvania Constitution requires – one that provides for every student to receive a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.” Respondents are legally obligated to meet that direction and, as of today, have abandoned any effort to challenge it.

It is time for our leaders in Harrisburg to work together to comply with the court’s ruling and fulfill their duty to deliver that constitutional system of public education.

We look forward to building a public school funding system that eliminates longstanding, grave inequities and provides sufficient funding to meet the needs of all students regardless of their communities’ wealth, giving every public school student a meaningful opportunity to succeed. Our schoolchildren cannot wait any longer.

Commonwealth Court has directed the General Assembly to ensure that public schools have sufficient funding to provide all students with access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education. That judgment is now final. It’s time to act.

The work of developing and implementing a new system that ensures adequate and equitable funding can begin with the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission. State leaders have promised to develop a plan in time for next year’s state budget process that includes a determination of what level of resources schools need to provide every student with the educational opportunities our constitution promises. We know that our state is currently missing the mark by billions of dollars. And while basic education funding is the state’s biggest responsibility, a remedy must also address special education, pre-K and school facilities.

Commonwealth Court has directed the General Assembly to ensure that public schools have sufficient funding to provide all students with access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education. That judgment is now final. It’s time to act.

Education Law Center – PA and Public Interest Law Center statement on the 2023-24 Pennsylvania Budget

“Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional system of public school funding continues to leave the students who need the most support with the least, because they live in low-wealth communities. The increases in this year’s budget, while appreciated, do not fundamentally change the unconstitutional and unacceptable status quo. In every corner of the state, students in public schools continue to be denied the basic resources they need to succeed academically, civically, and socially.

“Commonwealth Court’s school funding decision issued in February affirmed the right of every Pennsylvania child in every community to access contemporary and effective public schools. We thank the House of Representatives for recognizing that vouchers, or any other state subsidy for private schools, divert public funding to private schools that can and often do discriminate and are not accountable. Such a sweeping change will not move us one dollar closer to bringing the school funding system into constitutional compliance.

“Our focus now must turn to what the Governor and House leadership alike have promised: using the next six months to devise a comprehensive, constitutionally compliant school funding plan to ensure, once and for all, that all children have access to the contemporary, effective system of public education that the constitution mandates, that our children need, and that the decision of the Commonwealth Court requires.”

Background

• This state budget is the first that has passed since Commonwealth Court declared Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional on February 7.

• From the court ruling: “Educators credibly testified to lacking the very resources state officials have identified as essential to student achievement, some of which are as basic as safe and temperate facilities in which children can learn. Educators also testified about being forced to choose which few students would benefit from the limited resources they could afford to provide, despite knowing more students needed those same resources.”

• This year’s budget includes $100 million in renewed support for the Level Up program, which provides additional resources to the most deeply underfunded districts in the commonwealth.

• The proposed voucher program that would have sent public funds to private schools ultimately was not included in this budget. Funding private schools does not address the constitutional mandate that the General Assembly must support and maintain a contemporary, effective public education system that is available to every child in the commonwealth. See the Law Centers' joint memo on private schools and the court’s decision.

• The voucher program would have directed public funding to private institutions that can and do refuse to serve students that public schools have a legal responsibility to educate: students who are learning English, students with disabilities, students who struggle academically or behaviorally, LGBTQ+ students, and many more. See ELC's June statement.

• This year’s 7.8 percent increase in basic education funding allows districts to keep pace with inflation. The gap between the support students have in public schools and the support they need is a statewide shortfall estimated to be at least $4.6 billion.

• This year’s budget also provides a significantly smaller increase in state support for special education ($50 million) than last year’s budget ($100 million). It does not include dedicated support for school facilities. These costs continue to rise in districts across the state and are borne by local taxpayers and students.

June 21, 2023 - Today, Commonwealth Court President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer again ruled in favor of petitioners in Pennsylvania’s school funding lawsuit, denying a motion for post-trial relief filed in February by Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler.

Senate President Ward and Minority Leader Cutler have not yet announced whether or not they intend to appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. By law, an appeal would have to be filed within 30 days of today’s ruling.

Read the ruling here.

The motion for post-trial relief challenged the Court’s Feb. 7 landmark decision that the state’s system for funding public education is unconstitutional and asserted that the Court committed errors in its ruling.

In today’s opinion, President Judge Cohn Jubelirer held that “the Court discerns no reversible error” and entered judgment in favor of petitioners.

The opinion directed state officials to act to bring Pennsylvania’s public school funding system into compliance with the state constitution: “This Court now tasks Respondents with the challenge of delivering a system of public education that the Pennsylvania Constitution requires – one that provides for every student to receive a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education,” the opinion reads (emphasis added).

Joint statement from Education Law Center – PA, the Public Interest Law Center, and O’Melveny:

We are heartened by today’s opinion and call on state lawmakers to craft a responsive, effective, and constitutional remedy without any further delay. We look forward to building a new public school funding system that will meet the needs of all students regardless of zip code or community wealth, providing every student in Pennsylvania public schools a meaningful opportunity to succeed. Our schoolchildren cannot wait any longer. The work must start now, with significant new investments for underfunded public schools in low-wealth communities in this year’s state budget.

Joint Statement on Gov. Shapiro’s Budget Address from Education Law Center, Public Interest Law Center, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP

One month ago, in a historic ruling, Commonwealth Court declared Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional and ordered the governor and legislature to fix it.

The court recognized what Pennsylvania parents and educators have known for years: hundreds of thousands of children in low-wealth districts are being denied their fundamental right to quality public education, because the state shortchanges their communities.

Today, Gov. Shapiro issued a call to action for “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to do right by our kids, to fund our schools.” We are grateful for the governor’s leadership, and we look forward to working with the governor to find a comprehensive solution that "ensures every child has access to thorough and efficient education." As he recognized, the current budget proposal does not do that.

This work must begin without delay. This year’s proposed education budget does not do enough to meet the standard set by our state constitution and the urgency of this moment. This year’s increases are only pegged to keeping school funding on pace with inflation. This proposal also takes a step backwards: while last year’s budget provided additional support for the Commonwealth’s most deeply underfunded districts through the Level Up program, this one does not. The moment calls for more.

Students need a budget proposal this year that begins to change the inadequate and inequitable public school funding status quo in Pennsylvania, and provides students with the educators and resources that allow them to realize their potential. We look forward to working with the Governor and the General Assembly to answer the call, enacting a budget that makes a down-payment towards a constitutionally compliant system, and begins a multiyear plan to provide adequate funding for all students and schools.

Background on this year’s budget proposal

This year’s budget proposal includes 7.8 percent increases in basic education funding (BEF) and special education funding (SEF). $567 million for BEF, and $104 million for SEF. As stated in the governor’s budget in brief, these increases are “on par with recent inflationary and cost-of-living growth.” Last year’s education budget included a $768 million increase for BEF—including a $225 million Level Up supplement for the 100 most underfunded school districts—and a $100 million increase for SEF.

As the parties gathered in court one final time on Tuesday to argue the legal issues, attorneys for petitioner districts, families, and organizations in Pennsylvania’s historic school funding trial highlighted the promise of a high-quality school system for all students spelled out in the state Constitution that they contend remains unrealized for hundreds of thousands of students in low-wealth districts.

The day-long session featured clashes of views between attorneys for the petitioners and legislative respondents over questions like whether the Constitution guarantees a right to education and whether it mandates a “high-quality, contemporary education” or simply a “minimum basic education.”

Throughout the session, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer asked questions of the attorneys. The case now awaits her decision, which could take several months.

“Almost 150 years ago, the Commonwealth enshrined the right to education in its Constitution, and it didn't just guarantee an education – it specified the quality of that education,” said petitioner attorney Katrina Robson in opening the argument.

“The framers could have promised only a system of schools; some states did that – they stopped right there,” Robson said. “Here in the commonwealth, the delegates imposed on the General Assembly a mandate to provide a system of education that was ‘thorough and efficient.’ Those words are critical, they have meaning, and they are why we are here today.”

In fact, Robson explained, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “invited this court to give meaning to those words" when it remanded the case to Commonwealth Court in 2017.

What the Constitution Requires

In writing the education clause of the Constitution, petitioners have argued, the drafters used the phrase “thorough and efficient” to mean “complete” and “effective,” and their constitutional language from 1874 was aimed at ensuring a right for all children to a quality education that prepares them to meet the demands of the time and to function as active citizens in a democracy.

Petitioner attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg offered guidance to the court on what this education clause standard requires today, urging a declaration from the court that “the General Assembly shall provide all Pennsylvania students with a contemporary, high-quality, effective public education … which prepares them to be college and career ready, allows them to meet their potential, promotes democracy and citizenship, and provides Pennsylvania with a competitive, capable workforce.”

The current system fails to meet that mandate, leaving students in low-wealth districts without sufficient teachers, counselors, or instructional materials — all things, Urevick-Acklelsberg said, that “there was largely consensus in this litigation actually makes a difference for children."

"The evidence shows, when you look at the resources districts can bring to bear and the outcomes they're able to achieve, that the system is not meeting its mandate,” he said. Pennsylvania has a system that is “inadequate, it's inequitable, it's illogical."

In a presentation on behalf of the governor and secretary of education, attorney Sophia Lee expressed a view similar to petitioners regarding the state Constitution’s meaning: “The text of the education clause and the evidence at trial support the view that a thorough and efficient system is one which provides a meaningful opportunity for substantially all children to achieve academic, social, and civic success."

“The evidence shows, when you look at the resources districts can bring to bear and the outcomes they're able to achieve, that the system is not meeting its mandate.”

But attorneys for the legislative respondents asked the court to take a much narrower view of what the Constitution requires.

Attorney Tom DeCesar, who along with fellow attorney Anthony Holtzman represented Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, argued that all that is required by the Constitution is ensuring a “standard basic education.” He cited just four necessary ingredients: “a standard curriculum, appropriate teachers, safe buildings, and basic instrumentalities of education.”

Legislative respondents urged the court to adopt their view that changes made to modernize the Constitution’s education clause in 1967 transformed the education clause’s meaning. Attorney Holtzman argued that the 1967 revisions, which removed the phrase “[public schools] wherein all the children of this Commonwealth above the age of six years may be educated” and replaced it with the phrase “to serve the needs of the Commonwealth,” eliminated “a right to receive an education.”

Petitioners emphasized that there was no discussion or documentation in 1967 indicating any intention to take away the right to education from children – history that Judge Jubelirer referenced in her questioning. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has taken the position that the clause has been in the Pennsylvania Constitution in “materially the same form since 1874.”

How to Measure Adequacy

The parties also took different views about how today’s school funding system should be evaluated. Petitioners argued that in order to determine whether the system is adequately funded, outcomes — measures of whether or not students are learning and achieving educational goals — must be considered along with resources available in schools (or inputs).

But DeCesar said the standard should be “inputs only.”

Patrick Northen, his counterpart representing House Speaker Bryan Cutler, agreed, dismissing the possibility that there was any “judicially manageable” way to use student outcomes to evaluate the school system at all.

However, disparities in outcomes and disparities in resources are clearly linked, Robson said, referencing evidence produced at trial. She said that “the districts where we see these low rates of proficiency and the low graduation rates as well are the same districts that lack the key resources, supports, and interventions that are known to improve student achievement.”

Executive respondents’ attorney Lee agreed with the premise that outputs as well as inputs must be considered in determining whether the system is adequately funded, saying, “The outcomes are the evidence of the adequacy and the quality of the inputs.”

“The evidence is clear: The Constitution has been violated.”

Petitioner attorney Urevick-Ackelsberg explained how other states have been able to create manageable standards for deciding whether funding is adequate. “What courts generally do is look at the funding scheme overall, the funding available overall, look at the resources that districts can bring to bear and look to see how the system is actually functioning,” he said.

In concluding remarks rebutting the legislative respondents, Urevick-Ackelsberg reviewed evidence from trial about funding deprivations statewide as well as testimony from Pennsylvania’s former top K-12 official that funding gaps are one of the “root causes” of the state’s vast achievement gaps.

“There is a root cause problem here, and it’s been established across the commonwealth,” he said.

“The evidence is clear: The Constitution has been violated.”

As the Pennsylvania school funding case in Commonwealth Court moves closer to its conclusion, petitioners in the case replied Friday to arguments in a July 1 brief filed by legislative leaders and concluded that “Petitioners have proven the Commonwealth’s school funding system violates the Education Clause, and discriminates against Petitioners and children in other low-wealth districts in violation of their rights to equal protection under law.”

Spelling out the stark difference in views between the opposing parties on the legal issues, including whether or not a high-quality public education is guaranteed by the state Constitution, petitioners’ reply brief is the final scheduled filing in the case.

The arguments raised in the series of legal briefs filed over the past month and a half – including the back-and forth between petitioners and legislative leaders Sen. Jake Corman and House Speaker Bryan Cutler – will be the focus of oral argument by all the parties in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg next Tuesday, July 26. Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer continues to preside in the case, and her decision in the case could come several months after oral argument.

The legal arguments in this post-trial phase have focused on fleshing out the meaning of Pennsylvania’s constitutional language mandating that “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth” and on the Constitution’s equal protection provisions.

Petitioners argue that the Constitution provides a fundamental right to an equal opportunity to a high-quality public education for all children. Legislative respondents argue there is no constitutional right to an education at all.

In their latest brief, attorneys for the petitioner school districts, parents, and organizations that filed suit against state officials reiterate that legislators are not meeting the constitutional standard for providing a thorough and efficient system of public education: “The evidence Petitioners presented at trial demonstrates that Pennsylvania school districts cannot provide wide swaths of students with the education they need to fulfill their potential and become college and career ready without additional funding.”

In contrast, petitioners argue, “Respondents’ reasoning is circular – they claim that because only the General Assembly represents the people, only the General Assembly can determine the needs of the Commonwealth, and therefore “thorough and efficient” is whatever the General Assembly says it is – and they say it is “basic.”

The briefs submitted by the parties that will be addressed at oral argument on July 26 present two contrasting visions of Pennsylvania’s system of public education:

• Petitioners argue that the state Constitution requires “a high-quality contemporary education that prepares children for self-sufficiency and civic participation.” Legislative respondents propose a constitutional standard requiring only a “standard basic” or “minimum basic” education, the parameters of which are determined by the General Assembly alone.

• Petitioners argue that the Constitution provides a fundamental right to an equal opportunity to a high-quality public education for all children. Legislative respondents argue there is no constitutional right to an education at all.

• Petitioners argue that local control “does not excuse the deprivations suffered by children in Pennsylvania’s low-wealth districts,” and these deprivations violate the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee. Legislative respondents argue that local control justifies the vast disparities in the system.

Petitioners are represented by attorneys from the Public Interest Law Center, Education Law Center, and O’Melveny.

Oral argument on July 26 will start at 9:30 am in Courtroom 3001 of the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg and is expected to last much of the day. The argument will be livestreamed by Commonwealth Court on their YouTube page.

Here are the post-trial legal briefs that have been filed in the case since June 1:

Petitioners’ principal legal brief

Brief from Sen. Corman

Brief from Speaker Cutler

Brief from executive respondents, including Gov. Wolf

Brief from State Board of Education

Petitioners’ Omnibus Reply Brief