Pa. must plan to fairly fund public education
This fall, Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding Commission will hold a series of hearings across the state to collect testimony from educators and education advocacy groups about the current state of public education in Pennsylvania. The first field hearing will be right here in Allentown on Tuesday.
At a critical time for public education in the state, the commission is tasked with an essential directive — reviewing the distribution of state funding for basic education to the state’s 500 school districts and preparing a report of its findings to the General Assembly.
Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer’s decision this year in the historic school funding lawsuit indicated that funding public education is not only a moral requirement but a constitutional obligation, as well. Years of underfunding have set districts in all corners of the state back. Rural, urban and suburban districts alike are dealing with larger class sizes, outdated curricula, obsolete and crumbling school facilities, and fewer teachers and support staff.
The commission’s task is to develop a plan to ensure that public education is funded adequately and equitably in Pennsylvania. Gov. Josh Shapiro made it clear in his budget address in March that the court has mandated that the commission provide the General Assembly with a path to make sure every student has access to a comprehensive, effective and contemporary system of public education.
“President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer of the Commonwealth Court issued a ruling declaring Pennsylvania’s system for funding public education unconstitutional,” Shapiro said. “That ruling was a call to action. Literally. Her remedy was for us to get around the table and come up with a solution that ensures every child has access to a thorough and efficient education. … And that means we are all acknowledging that the court has ordered us to come to the table and come up with a better system, one that passes constitutional muster. I’m ready to meet you there.”
The commission needs to be the table that Shapiro alluded to, and it should focus on four priorities for its final report this fall: 1. Determine the total cost to meet the constitutional standard. This is accomplished by establishing a meaningful adequacy target for each school district as part of the formula that determines how much each district needs to provide its children with a comprehensive, effective, contemporary education, and how the funds will be distributed to the districts.
2. Calculate targets that also address unmet needs beyond K-12 basic education funding that were identified by the court as critical to ensuring meaningful opportunities for all public school students, such as facilities, special education and pre-K.
3. Ensure that the state meets its constitutional obligation by establishing a fair and equitable “state share” for those targets so that low-wealth school districts can reach adequate funding at a reasonable tax effort.
4. Create a plan, with a reasonable timeline, for the state to meet its share of those targets — a map for the governor and state Legislature to meet their constitutional mandate.
The purpose of a fair funding formula should be clear to all: to meet our moral and constitutional obligations to fund our schools adequately and equitably. If we do not first say what would constitute such funding, it is impossible to design, let alone evaluate, the formula itself.
Additionally, neglecting the larger imperatives noted above would mean the commission has failed to meet its obligations. We cannot ensure that “all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education” if we’re not looking more holistically at what constitutes meaningful opportunity in our public schools.
This is not the time for mere tinkering with the funding formula. This is the time to take major steps toward ensuring our public schools will, in the very near future, give every child such an education. We can do hard things, and members of the commission owe it to Pennsylvania students — current and future — to ensure a “thorough and efficient” system of public education by being thorough and efficient in how they themselves undertake this important charge.