Litigants say ‘no cuts and no excuses’ to funding for public schools
The Education Law Center-PA and the Public Interest Law Center say that the stalemate between House Democrats and Senate Republicans on the Pennsylvania state budget risks stalling momentum toward fixing the Commonwealth’s school funding system crisis.
The groups helped represent the plaintiffs in the landmark William Penn School District et al. v. Pa. Dept. of Education case that found Pennsylvania’s school funding system violated the state constitution’s education clause and equal protection provisions.
“Our Constitution requires lawmakers to fund public schools adequately and equitably,” said Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center-PA. “Instead, they are failing to do their most basic job – passing a budget. Pennsylvania children don’t get a do-over for the years they spend in underfunded classrooms.”
“A child’s right to a good public school cannot bend to Harrisburg horse trading,” said Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center. “Adequate funding means smaller class sizes, safe and modern facilities, and qualified staff in every classroom. The General Assembly started us on that path last year. They must keep going.”
In July 2024, the General Assembly allocated $500 million of the $4.5 billion needed to close the adequacy gap between what school districts have and what the state needs to provide. An important first step, but the group says the pace of progress is “far too slow.”
“Every day of delay harms children in both House and Senate district, Democrats and Republicans alike,” it said in a press release.
The Education Law Center-PA and the Public Interest Law Center say the General Assembly must act now to:
- Pass a budget without further delay;
- Invest at least $500 million in adequacy funding and work toward shortening the timeline for reaching funding adequacy;
- Increase funding for basic and special educaion; and
- Enact long-overdue cyber charter funding reform.
“Pennsylvania’s students cannot afford more political gridlock,” the release states. “Lawmakers must stop dragging their feet and pass a budget that meets their constitutional duty to provide every child with the education they deserve.”
Steve Ulrich is managing editor of Politics PA.
