Trial date set for historic school-funding lawsuit
HARRISBURG — The long-awaited trial date for a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s school funding system has been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9 in Commonwealth Court.
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 Maura McInerney, Education Law Center legal director, during a virtual news conference on Friday.
The Education Law
Center along with the
Public Interest Law Center, both Philadelphia based, is joined by the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers in representing the litigants. At the trial, which is expected to last several weeks, Ms. McInerney said they intend to show the harm caused to students in low wealth districts by the state’s funding system, which school officials on the call said was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On average, Ms. McInerney
said the 20% poorest school districts in Pennsylvania receive $4,800 less per student than those attending the 20% wealthiest school districts. She said the funding inequity disproportionately impacts Black and Latino students who are segregated in the state’s most underfunded districts.
An analysis commissioned by the litigants finds that $4.6 billion more is needed for all students to be educated to the state’s academic standards. This year, the state budget provides $6.8 billion in basic education funding and nearly $1.2 billion for special education.
The lawsuit is filed against legislative leaders, state education officials and the governor, but Michael Churchill, a lawyer with the Public Interest Law Center, said it is primarily being defended by the leaders of the GOP-controlled House and Senate — Republican House Speaker Bryan Cutler, of Lancaster County, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, of Centre County.