Pre-Trial Press

We're rooting for those seeking fair funding for Pennsylvania's public schools

LNP lancaster online
11/10/2021

Seven years after it was filed, a lawsuit challenging the ways Pennsylvania funds education finally will go to trial Friday in Commonwealth Court. The petitioners include the School District of Lancaster and five other school districts, as well as two statewide organizations and several parents.

School funding in Pa. is about to go on trial — here’s what you need to know

whyy keystone crossroads
11/8/2021

Seven years ago, a group of school districts, parents, and advocates embarked on a legal journey that could upend the way Pennsylvania funds its schools.

This week, those plaintiffs head to court in Harrisburg.

William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al. — colloquially referred to as Pennsylvania’s school funding lawsuit — is among the more complicated and consequential legal fights in state history.

On school funding, Pennsylvania is not doing its job. That’s why we’re in court

PennLive
11/5/2021

All Pennsylvanians need to know that our state is failing. It is failing our children, our businesses, our taxpayers, and our communities by inadequately and inequitably funding our schools.

Pennsylvania once made a legislative commitment that 50% of education funding would come from the state ‒ but that commitment was not enforced and was abandoned decades ago. Each year, local taxpayers are asked to do more. In those districts where that is impossible, the kids simply must do without. Whole generations of Pennsylvania’s children have suffered through inadequately funded school systems.

Historic trial on school funding to start Friday in Harrisburg

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
11/7/2021

A trial set to start this week in Harrisburg could change how Pennsylvania funds its public schools in what advocates say would be a more equitable manner. 

Why we are suing Pennsylvania over school funding.

THE MORNING CALL
10/25/2021

This is not just a few schools falling through the cracks: 86% of commonwealth students attend schools that are ill-equipped to offer them a 21st century education, according to a benchmark that is written into state law.

Trial will begin in November in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg to determine whether Pennsylvania’s funding system meets state constitutional standards. The petitioners include six school districts (including Shenandoah Valley and Panther Valley), two statewide organizations, and several parents.

The communities are side by side. They have wildly different education outcomes – by design.

USA TODAY
10/07/2021

Pennsylvania – home to a whopping 500 districts – ranks 45th in the country for the share of school funding that comes from the state. That makes it ripe territory for educational gerrymandering: The less money schools get from their state, the more they have to rely on property taxes.

Panther Vly. funding suit delayed

Times News Lehighton
9/20/2021

Panther Valley is one of six school districts which have long waited for their day in court in a lawsuit aimed at making Pennsylvania’s school funding formula more equitable.

They will have to wait a month longer.

The suit is now scheduled to begin Nov. 12.

School Funding Lawsuits Move the Needle Toward Fairness

the legal intelligencer
9/17/2021

We filed this lawsuit in 2014, along with our co-counsel, the Public Interest Law Center and the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, on behalf of six Pennsylvania school districts, two statewide organizations and a group of parents. We are challenging a system that is denying thousands of schoolchildren the opportunity to fulfill their potential.

Editorial: COVID impact on poor schools gets day in court in Pa. fair school funding lawsuit

Delco Times
9/13/2021

As schools throughout the region reopen, the gaps in education funding in Pennsylvania are being seen clearly in the pandemic’s effect on learning in low-income communities.

Judge largely denies Cutler's request to bar evidence of racial disparities in school funding lawsuit

LANCASTER ONLINE
7/31/2021

A Commonwealth Court judge this week largely denied a motion from Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler to bar evidence of racial discrimination in the landmark school funding case involving the School District of Lancaster.

Petitioners, which include Lancaster and five other Pennsylvania school districts, parents, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, and the Pennsylvania chapter of the NAACP, can present race-related evidence, Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer declared.

That evidence may include race specific data from the state Department of Education showing the disproportionate impact the state’s education funding system has on children of color, evidence that Black and Hispanic students are heavily concentrated in high-poverty schools and, therefore, lack equitable access to educational opportunity.

Michael Churchill: School funding lawsuit could help students across Pa. get what they need

TRIB LIVE
7/24/2021

The solution we are hoping for in our case is simple. Pennsylvania should determine what resources kids need — like reading specialists, safe buildings and up-to-date science labs — for a quality public education that prepares them for college and career. And the General Assembly should provide the state funding necessary so that every student can receive that quality public education, whether or not they live in a wealthy community that is able to raise the needed funds with local taxes.

Our case is not about simply changing the way state funding is distributed. If you’re having a party with 100 guests, one pizza is not going to be enough, no matter how fairly you slice it. The pie needs to be bigger.

Looming school funding trial could force overhaul of state education spending

TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
7/17/2021

With the September trial in our school funding lawsuit fast approaching, the Tribune-Democrat reported on a motion filed by state legislative leaders to block the introduction of evidence about racial disparities. A ruling on the motion from the judge in the case is expected soon.

Education Law Center legal director Maura McInerney said that it’s always been clear that race would be a factor raised in the case: “If there is something that is clear in our Constitution, it’s that our public school system must work for all students, including Black and brown children, who have been deeply impacted by entrenched inequities. They’re more likely to be educated in underfunded schools and denied educational opportunities.”

A threat looming for 7 years finally is nipping at the heels of Pennsylvania officials. It could cost billions.

The Morning Call
6/23/2021

Over the next week, Pennsylvania lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf will be finalizing the state budget for next year. I hope they are looking over their shoulder.
They would be wise to finally get serious about funding public schools. If they don’t, a court could — and should — force them to.

PA Education Funding Suit Gets A Date In Court

DELCO TIMES
6/23/2021

“The order makes firm a Sept. 9 trial date that had previously been tentatively scheduled. The trial is expected to last several weeks as school districts including William Penn will make their case that the state’s funding formula is skewed and has harmed the state’s poorest children.
The case was brought in 2014 by six school districts, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, the NAACP-PA, and five public school parents, represented by the Education Law Center, the Public Interest Law Center.”

School funding suit gets new tentative trial date

DELCO TIMES
4/3/2021

“The petitioners pointed to U.S. Census data that ranks Pennsylvania 44th in the nation in terms of state funding with just 38 percent. They say this leaves districts heavily reliant on generating funds from local wealth and sets up a system where rich communities thrive and poor communities are left behind. This funding gap disproportionally impacts students of color, the petitioners say, with 50 percent of Black students and 40 percent of Latino students attending schools in the lowest 20 percent of local districts.”

Landmark school funding lawsuit heads to trial: ‘This trial will finally hold our General Assembly accountable’

THE PLS REPORTER
4/3/2021

“Seven years since it was first filed, the William Penn lawsuit, which seeks to deem the state’s current education funding system unconstitutional, will go to trial in the Commonwealth Court this September.”

School funding suit, with WB Area School District and resident, gets court date

TIMES LEADER
4/3/2021

“The wheels of justice turned so slowly that Tracey Hughes’ son has graduated from Wilkes-Barre Area School District, but she still voiced staunch support for a lawsuit alleging inadequate public education state funding, a suit that after seven years has been given a tentative court date.”

School District of Lancaster's landmark school funding lawsuit gets tentative trial date

LANCASTER ONLINE
4/2/2021

“A potentially game-changing school funding lawsuit in Pennsylvania is tentatively scheduled to go to trial Sept. 9, a Commonwealth Court judge ordered Thursday. The decision comes seven years after the petitioners, which include the School District of Lancaster, filed the initial lawsuit stating Pennsylvania’s education funding system dangerously shortchanges public school students, especially those from low-income communities, in violation of the state constitution.”

Trial date set for historic Pa. school funding lawsuit; ‘It has been a long road to get here’

PENN LIVE
4/2/2021

“Attorneys for the school districts, parents and organizations filed the lawsuit in 2014 in an effort to prove the General Assembly failed in its constitutional duty to provide a ‘thorough and efficient system of public education.’
‘This trial will finally hold our General Assembly accountable to the schoolchildren of Pennsylvania for their failure to provide every child in every zip code with a quality education,’ said Education Law Center legal director Maura McInerney during a virtual news conference on Friday.”

Trial date set for landmark school funding case in Pennsylvania

CHALKBEAT
4/2/2021

“The current system in Pennsylvania is ‘unpredictable and irrational,’ said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, an advocacy group focused on equity for all students. ‘At trial we will show that Pennsylvania’s constitution requires that our public school system works for all students, regardless of where they live, their skin color, how much money their family or community has, or what language they speak at home.’”

Commonwealth Court schedules trial for education funding lawsuit

WITF
4/2/2021

“Plaintiffs and their lawyers are is publicizing the tentative start date of September 9 to draw attention to their cause.”

Pa. schools need an additional $4.6 billion to close education gaps, new analysis finds

PA SPOTLIGHT
10/27/2020

“Pennsylvania’s public school children are being shortchanged by $4.6 billion — and those in the poorest school districts, who have fallen the furthest behind, are owed the most, according to a new analysis commissioned by advocates seeking to overhaul the state’s education funding system.”

Gov. Tom Wolf wants to raise Pa. income taxes and give $1.5 billion more to schools

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
2/2/2021

“‘We think this is a huge step in the right direction,’ said Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center, which along with the Public Interest Law Center is representing plaintiffs suing the state over school funding. ‘For years, our system has allowed the students who need the most to get the least.’”

Governor seeks big increase in school funding, tax increase

ASSOCIATED PRESS
2/2/2021

“Wolf’s proposal carries what could approach $2 billion extra for public schools, an increase of more than 20%.

The biggest part of that, $1.35 billion, would be distributed to schools to pay for their primary operations, like teacher salaries, operating costs and supplies, on top of the $6.8 billion they currently receive, Jen Swails, Wolf’s budget secretary, said in an interview.”

Advocates highlight how Pa.’s outdated school funding policy causes deep inequities

WHYY/KEYSTONE CROSSROADS
1/28/2021

“Pennsylvania’s Black and Latino students are the most negatively impacted: The report states more than 80% of them are located in growing school districts that would benefit tremendously by axing hold harmless and running all state funding
through the 2016 formula.”

Pa. needs to close gap in education funding

THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
3/10/2020

“Troubling race and income disparities in access to educational opportunities are found in most states. But the size and pervasiveness of the gaps in Pennsylvania are among the worst in the country.”

Here's what you need to know about School District of Lancaster's school funding lawsuit against the state

LANCASTER ONLINE
2/21/2020

“If we win, what’s likely going to happen is that the judge will say, ‘I agree with you. The system is underfunded. The system is broken. Legislature, you fix it.’ What we need at that point is for the legislature to feel actual pressure … from public opinion.”

Segregation in Pennsylvania schools: How a ZIP code determines the quality of a child’s education

THE MORNING CALL
10/31/2019

“Drawing a correlation between Allentown’s financial state and the quality of education it can provide, Parker wrote in an opinion piece in The Morning Call in May: ‘It cannot be the narrative of this city, this region, this district, that Allentown students somehow deserve less.’”

Is Pennsylvania’s school funding unfair? This lawsuit hopes to upend the model.

PUBLIC SOURCE
8/14/2019

“The effects of inequitable education are measurable by academic achievement. In the 2012-13 school year, more than 300,000 of the roughly 875,000 students tested in Pennsylvania were not able to meet the state academic standards on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams, the lawsuit states.”

Why, yes, spending more money on schools does yield better results 

PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL-STAR
4/18/2019

“For decades, advocates for public education have been calling for Pennsylvania to use state funding to close the gap between rich and poor districts so that all children have the opportunity for an education that prepares them for their future.
Even so, another unvarnished truth is that Pennsylvania has the worst gap in total school funding between rich and poor of any state in the nation.”

Spending gaps are wider, school conditions worse, petitioners in school funding lawsuit say

THE NOTEBOOK
7/6/2018

“Education increases in the last two state budgets, including the fiscal 2019 budget just passed, lagged behind the ‘education inflation base index,’ according to Price’s affidavit, meaning that, since the new formula was enacted, ‘Pennsylvania school districts, including the petitioner districts in this case, have seen money flow out of their classrooms, not into them, unless they had additional local resources to make up for the shortfall.’”

For media inquiries, contact Jonathan McJunkin at Public Interest Law Center,
or Paul Socolar at Education Law Center.