July 7, 2022 – Today, legislative leaders announced an agreement for the 2022-23 state budget, including a $525 million increase in state funding for basic education, $225 million for a Level Up supplement to the 100 most deeply underfunded school districts, a $100 million increase in special education funding, and $200 million in grants to school districts for mental health and school safety.
Attorneys from Education Law Center-PA and the Public Interest Law Center, representing school districts, parents, and organizations in a case challenging Pennsylvania’s system for funding public schools, released the following joint statement. The case is in its post-trial phase, with oral argument on the legal issues in the case scheduled for July 26.
During a four-month trial in Commonwealth Court, our clients made the effects of Pennsylvania’s inequitable and inadequate school funding system impossible to ignore, describing crumbling buildings, crowded classrooms, and students falling further behind each year. The disparities and deprivation faced by students in low-wealth communities in every corner of the commonwealth, fueled by insufficient state funding, are unconscionable and unconstitutional.
An analysis of state data during trial showed that low-wealth districts spend $4,800 less per student than wealthy districts in Pennsylvania. When the student need is taken into account—recognizing that students in poverty, students learning English, and students with disabilities require more support to access the same education—that gap grows to more than $7,000 per student. This budget agreement is an important step to start closing funding gaps, but it does not ensure that students in every community can receive the high quality education they’re entitled to under the State Constitution.
“The significant education funding increase in this budget agreement shows that many in Harrisburg recognize the depth of the hole our legislative leaders have dug for our students. But it is not sufficient to meet the state legislature’s constitutional responsibility to fix our inadequate, two-tiered school funding system,” said Maura McInerney, legal director at the Education Law Center.
“We welcome this start to increasing funding, and we hope that legislators will not wait for court orders before they finally start to do what is necessary and what our constitution requires: to give all of Pennsylvania’s children the opportunity to be fully college- and career-ready, no matter where they live,” said Michael Churchill, attorney at the Public Interest Law Center.