Today, the court heard from two witnesses: Tara Yuricheck, a 5th grade history teacher in Panther Valley School District, and Derek Black, a professor at University of South Carolina Law School.
Yuricheck testified first. She described her strong connection to the Panther Valley School District: she attended Panther Valley schools throughout her childhood, she is a district graduate, she has taught at the district for 20 years, and her children go to school there.
She is both a teacher and a district taxpayer—and Panther Valley has the 10th highest local tax rate in Pennsylvania. She stated that her parents, who also live in the district, lost their house due to an inability to pay property taxes. Her own property taxes, she said, are higher than the principal payment in her mortgage.
Despite this, Panther Valley is unable to raise the funds needed to provide the personnel, materials, and facilities that its students need. All of Yuricheck’s classes in Panther Valley Intermediate School have more than 25 students in them. Her history textbooks are from 1997. The last president listed is Bill Clinton, and population figures date from the 1990 U.S. Census—the United States population has grown by 80 million since then. Each year, she stated, she spends around $300 of her own funds to purchase supplementary materials.
"I believe that all students can learn, that students want to learn,” she said, “and that I have to meet them where they are."
When she traveled to Harrisburg for this trial, her fellow teachers had to cover her classes because the district does not regularly have substitute teachers. On a regular basis, she said, students in the intermediate school are unable to access art, music, or gym classes, because too many teachers are covering classes for those who are absent.
She stated that some of her students come to her 5th grade class reading at a first-grade level. On cross-examination, respondents asked her about several writing classes that were once available in the intermediate school, but no longer are, such as poetry and creative writing. She stated that her students who need remedial attention in reading would have a difficult time taking advantage of those classes.
Yuricheck stated that students need support that the district is not able to provide. One guidance counselor serves 400 students. A single social worker comes in once a week, provided by a local hospital, and Yuricheck shared that she sees the positive impact this social worker has on the limited number of students who are able to see her. The building’s reading specialist is currently covering a 6th grade class and has been for the entire year, she said, because the district has been unable to fill that vacant position.
Yuricheck testified that it was painful to describe some of the deficiencies that students face in a district she has such a deep connection to.
"I'm a very positive person, and it's difficult to get up here and say bad things about the school district I love," Yuricheck said of Panther Valley. "And my colleagues and my students I love." She chose to testify as part of this case "in hopes that things change, and that being here I'm doing my part so that my students have a better tomorrow."
Next, Professor Derek Black took the stand. Derek Black, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, discussed the history of Pennsylvania’s 1872-1873 constitutional convention, where the Pennsylvania constitution’s education clause establishing the right to a “thorough and efficient system of public education” was first developed.
In his review of the record from the convention, Professor Black concluded that the education clause was one of the most important provisions under discussion, and that the delegates spent extensive effort discussing how to ensure that a new system of education could serve all students. “I concluded they were trying to ensure a high quality of education,” he said.
His testimony will continue tomorrow.