The six school districts challenging Pennsylvania’s school funding system in court are a representation of our state. Whether urban or rural, farmland or coal country, all of these communities have experienced the effects of a system that leaves them dependent on local wealth to meet their students’ basic needs. Here are their stories.
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Greater Johnstown School District
Cambria County, Southwestern PA
Superintendent Amy Arcurio
2,940 students
85.75% economically disadvantaged
0.99% English learners
41% White, 36% Black, 5% Hispanic, 0.2% Asian (1)
Needs $4,194 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding (2)
Local tax rate: 18 equalized mills (Statewide rank: 276 out of 499) (3)
$9,481 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 495 out of 499) (4)
Graduation rate: 77.27% (Statewide rank: 481 out of 499) (5)
1 PA Department of Education (PDE) Public School Enrollments 2019-20
2 Expert report prepared for petitioners by Dr. Matthew Kelly, professor, Penn State College of Education
3 PDE Finances AFR Revenues 2019-20
4 PDE 2021-22 Estimated Basic Education Funding. Local Effort Capacity index, Column L.
5 PDE 2019-20 Pennsylvania 4-Year Cohort Graduation Rates
Greater Johnstown School District, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, encompasses the city of Johnstown in Cambria County. Home to 19,000 people—down from a peak population of more than 65,000 in the 1920s—Johnstown was a historic center of steel production. The last local Bethlehem Steel plants closed in 1992.
In Greater Johnstown SD, approximately three-quarters of incoming kindergartners are behind in basic numeracy skills. Due to lack of needed funds, student needs are triaged at all levels. Only a fraction of the students who could benefit from academic and behavioral interventions receives these services. The middle school library is locked, as there is no librarian to staff it.
“Students in districts like mine are not worth any less than students in any other district in Pennsylvania,” said Greater Johnstown School District Superintendent Amy Arcurio. “With this lawsuit, we can end the hunger games that the General Assembly has put on for a generation.”
“Students in districts like mine are not worth any less than students in any other district in Pennsylvania”
School District of Lancaster
Lancaster County, South Central PA
Superintendent Damaris Rau
10,880 students
90.71% economically disadvantaged
19.80% English learners
61% Hispanic, 17% Black, 12% White, 4% Asian
Needs $4,510 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding
Local tax rate: 24.8 equalized mills (Statewide: rank 74 out of 499)
$13,398 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 274 out of 499)
Graduation rate: 78.64% (Statewide rank: 476 out of 499)
Lancaster is a diverse city of 58,000, located about 40 miles east of Harrisburg. In the heart of Amish farm country, Lancaster has become a gateway for immigrants and refugees from around the world, particularly from Latin America. Like many of Pennsylvania’s mid-sized cities—such as Reading, Allentown, and Erie—Lancaster struggles to raise the needed funds for public education in its large school district from local funding sources.
Despite its large population of English learners, the School District of Lancaster is forced to provide the bare minimum of instructional time in English-language development, because the district lacks sufficient staff to provide more. At the start of the 2021 school year this August, three elementary schools and one middle school in the district that can’t afford air conditioning were dismissed early for two days due to extreme heat.
“We know that Pennsylvania has some of the biggest achievement gaps between racial groups, even when controlling for poverty, in the nation,” City of Lancaster Superintendent Damaris Rau told a reporter for Lancaster Online in July 2021, after Speaker Cutler unsuccessfully sought to block evidence on racial disparities in Pennsylvania public education. “If our school system is not serving all students, it is not living up to the promise of the (Pennsylvania) constitution.”
Panther Valley School District
Carbon & Schuylkill Counties, Northeastern PA
Superintendent David McAndrew
1,622 students
56.35% economically disadvantaged
1.54% English learners
79% White, 10% Hispanic, 4% Black, 0.4% Asian
Needs $5,961 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding
Local tax rate: 32.6 equalized mills (Statewide rank: 10 out of 499)
$11,942 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 417 out of 499)
Graduation rate: 81.52% (Statewide rank: 466 out of 499)
Panther Valley School District is a small rural district located primarily in Carbon County. The boroughs it serves all have anthracite coal mining history, including Coaldale and Lansford, both established as company towns of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company.
In Panther Valley, low pay and difficult working conditions have led to high teacher turnover, with teachers being poached by neighboring districts that are able to pay higher salaries. The teachers left behind have increasingly large class sizes that are difficult to manage and tailor to their students’ needs.
“We are criticized for the performance of our students on state assessment scores,” former Panther Valley Superintendent Denis Kergick wrote in a 2018 affidavit. “Yet it is the state funding system which prevents us from providing basic resources that our educators know our students need.”
Shenandoah Valley School District
Schuylkill County, Northeastern PA
Superintendent Brian Waite
1,079 students
75.44% economically disadvantaged
12.23% English learners
51% Hispanic, 44% White, 4% Black, .5% Asian
Needs $7,027 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding
Local tax rate: 29.8 equalized mills (Statewide rank: 23 out of 499)
$9,814 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 491 out of 499)
Graduation rate: 87.18% (Statewide rank: 424 out of 499)
Shenandoah Valley School District is a small rural district in Schuylkill County, part of eastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region. Shenandoah is known for Mrs. T’s Pierogis. While the district’s local tax rates are the 23rd highest in Pennsylvania, its spending per student, weighted to account for need, is the 8th lowest in the state.
As in underfunded school districts across the state, staff at Shenandoah Valley wear many hats out of necessity. The district’s only gifted education teacher doubles as an ELL teacher, and a school psychologist also works as an assistant principal. Lacking universal internet connectivity and devices for every student, the district was unable to provide online learning to all of its students when schools closed in Spring 2020, relying instead on paper packets for curriculum.
Lacking universal internet connectivity and devices for every student, the district was unable to provide online learning to all of its students when schools closed in Spring 2020
“We provided students with those packets because we don’t have so many of the things that districts which are funded fairly do have,” Shenandoah Valley Superintendent Brian Waite said in an April 2021 press conference. “This has exacerbated and increased the gaps in learning between our students and those who have the funding that they need.”
Wilkes-Barre Area School District
Luzerne County, Northeastern PA
Superintendent Brian Costello
7,310 students
80.16% economically disadvantaged
7.55% English learners
40% Hispanic, 34% White, 18% Black, 1% Asian
Needs $3,797 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding
Local tax rate: 22.7 equalized mills (Statewide rank: 109 out of 499)
$9,969 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 488 out of 499)
Graduation rate: 83.27% (Statewide rank: 457 out of 499)
Wilkes-Barre Area School District serves Wilkes-Barre and other nearby Wyoming Valley communities. Wilkes-Barre, a city of 44,000 on the banks of the Susquehanna River, was a center of early industrialization. More than a quarter of Wilkes-Barre residents live in poverty.
The school district lacks sufficient counselors, librarians, and remediation staff. Even simple problems among students, like bullying, become difficult to address, lacking sufficient interventions. Tracey Hughes, a parent whose son is a graduate and attended the district throughout his time in school, is a parent petitioner in the case. While a student, her son experienced libraries so cold he had to wear mittens and a coat, outdated and scarce textbooks that couldn’t be taken home, and science labs without enough up-to-date equipment for all students to participate—among other challenges caused by inadequate resources in the district.
“It made [my son and his classmates] feel like they were inadequate,” Ms. Hughes said in an April 2021 press conference, “which is not what we as parents try to instill in them. They all matter, and it should not depend on our ZIP code, what we get for funding.”
William Penn School District
Delaware County, Southeastern PA
Superintendent Eric Becoats
4,916 students
57.85% economically disadvantaged
4.62% English learners
88% Black, 4% Hispanic, 4% White, 1% Asian
Needs $4,836 more per student to reach the state’s benchmark for adequate education funding
Local tax rate: 35 equalized mills (Statewide rank: 2 out of 499)
$14,000 current spending per weighted student (Statewide rank: 222 out of 499)
Graduation rate: 77.92% (Statewide rank: 478 out of 499)
William Penn School District serves rapidly growing suburban communities in Delaware County, just outside Philadelphia, such as Darby, Lansdowne, and Yeadon. Despite immense local efforts to provide the needed funds for public education—district residents pay the highest school tax rates in Delaware County and among the highest tax rates in the state—William Penn still falls short of state benchmarks for adequate funding by more than $4,800 per student.
Despite immense local efforts to provide the needed funds for public education, William Penn still falls short of state benchmarks for adequate funding by more than $4,800 per student.
The majority of incoming kindergartners in the district test behind in reading, and many come to school without pre-K experience, but the district is unable to employ any reading specialists to help them catch up. Victoria Monroe, a recent William Penn graduate, detailed her experience in a June 2021 op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “There are wires hanging from the ceiling, the cafeteria is overcrowded, and the guidance counselor is only accessible when she isn’t doing another job or dealing with hundreds of other kids,” she wrote. “The library is often locked.”
“I believe that our students have normalized their deprivation,” former William Penn superintendent Jane Harbert wrote in a 2018 affidavit. “That should not continue.”