Schools seeking fair funding get a win

Commonwealth Court has dismissed objections against a lawsuit challenging how Pa. doles out funding.

It now appears the struggling families of the William Penn School District — and all proponents for fair school funding — will finally get their day in court.

The families, saddled for years with an unequal education for little reason other than their zip code, are celebrating a major court victory.

This week Commonwealth Court dismissed objections raised by Republican leaders in the Legislature against the landmark lawsuit challenging the way Pennsylvania doles out funding for education.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, had gone to court claiming the plaintiffs’ point should be rendered “moot,” arguing that the matter of funding already was rectified by the Legislature several years ago with the adoption of the so-called Fair Funding Formula.

But the William Penn families, along with those from likewise economically depressed areas across the state countered with a “not so fast.” They maintained that the problem persists in part because the Fair Funding Formula applies only to new education revenue, not the basic state allotment. They actually contended that the situation has managed to get worse since the Fair Funding Formula was adopted by the Legislature a few years ago.

The formula, created by a bipartisan panel of legislators, takes a number of additional factors into consideration when handing out education funding, including economic factors, the number of special education students, the number of students speaking English as a second language, and several others. The idea was to allocate more money to those districts in the most need.

So far it hasn’t worked out that way.

That’s why the William Penn families went to court. Their initial suit was tossed out when Commonwealth Court agreed that education funding was within the purview of the Legislature, not the courts. But the state Supreme Court upheld the plaintiffs’ challenge and sent it back to Commonwealth Court for further arguments. It now appears as if the case could go to trial.

Ironically, another person named in the suit, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, also filed a response to the suit. But Wolf, who has been a fierce proponent of increased education funding since taking office, actually argued in favor of the suit. The governor maintains that despite increases in education funding, the disparity continues to exist.

“Clearly, a factual dispute about the significance and adequacy of the funding changes … persists,” the court ruled.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2014 by the Education Law Center and Pubic Interest Center, centered on the claim that Pennsylvania fails in its constitutional mandate to offer an adequate education to all children in the Commonwealth. In essence, the suit claims too many children in the state are discriminated against for no other reason than where they live.

Now it appears likely – unless the legislators file new appeals – that the case could wind up in court.

Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, emphasized the underpinning of the suit, that while the Fair Funding Formula helped, it did not address the basic unfairness and uneven playing field that is built into education funding in the state.

The formula “in no way resolved the broken funding system in the state,” McInerney said. “It did not add a single dollar to the state contribution to education. There’s no question that the schools that are underfunded continue to suffer from the same harm.”

There is no shortage of irony in the fact that the push to level the playing field in education funding was labeled a “Fair Funding Formula.”

If there is one thing families in the many underfunded schools of our region can attest to, it is that there is nothing inherently fair about the way Pennsylvania funds education.

They know all too well what that means. It means fewer supplies, fewer teachers, larger class sizes, fewer support personnel.

In short, a lesser, inadequate education than what is offered just a few miles away in wealthier school districts.

We’re glad families in underfunded districts are getting their day in court.

Not it’s time for them to get their fair share of the pie when it comes to their kids’ education.