Court: Present Pennsylvania School Funding System Is Unconstitutional

“This is an earthquake.”

That was Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of the Public Interest Law Center at a press conference Tuesday, speaking of a ruling by Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer that in the state of Pennsylvania, “students attending low-wealth districts are being deprived of equal protection of law.”

Maura McInerney of the Education Law Center called the ruling a “decisive, clear, unequivocal victory for the children of Pennsylvania.”

The decision fills 786 pages, so there’s much to unpack. But the findings are clear enough, determining that the current funding system is in violation of the state’s constitutional requirement to provide a “thorough and efficient systems of public schools” to educate all children.

To summarize, the Education Clause requires that every student be provided with 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. This is consistent with the plain language of the Education Clause, as well as its history.

Leading to this directive:

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.

The decision was praised by folks on many sides of education issues, with both supporters of public education and school choice, praising the outcome.

Pennsylvania’s funding system depends heavily on local school district’s ability to draw funding from their own local taxpayers, with tremendous funding gaps between rich and poor districts leading to what has been the most inequitable funding system in the nation. As Dr. Matthew Kelly, professor at Pann State’s College of Education testified, “The districts that need the most get the least.”

The Public Interest Law Center and Education Law Center-PA filed the lawsuit in 2014; the plaintiffs are six school districts, along with the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, the NAACP PA State Conference, and some families. The case finally went to trial in November of 2021.

While the court decision is quite clear about the current school funding system in Pennsylvania—it’s unconstitutional and cannot continue as is—it is less clear what comes next.

Using a fair funding formula to redistribute current state funding is not an answer. That funding is inadequate and simply moving it around was described by one witness as “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Experts estimate that the state needs an addition $4.6 billion to plug the funding gaps. The ruling itself suggests the options for reform are “virtually limitless,” and don’t have to be “entirely financial,” though clearly financial reforms are a large part of what’s needed.

Who has to sort all this out? The court order calls for the “respondents, comprised of the Executive and Legislative branches of government and administrative agencies with expertise in the field of education, the first opportunity, in conjunction with Petitioners, to devise a plan to address the constitutional deficiencies identified herein.”

When he was still state attorney general, Governor Josh Shapiro wrote an amicus brief for the petitioners’ side, so he is presumably ready to go to work on a new plan. It remains to be seen how enthusiastically the legislature will join in. Pennsylvania is not the first state to lose such a suit, but the results are not always speedy compliance with the court. In both Washington and North Carolina had court-ordered education funding plans, and in both states, after the legislature stalled, the court ended up imposing a $100,000 per day fine for non-compliance.

There may also be an appeal of the decision, in which case the lawyers said they’d advocate strongly against a stay of the judge’s ruling.