Pa. must fund public schools the way the constitution requires. We’ve got the money.
One month ago, Governor Josh Shapiro proposed a historic investment in basic education funding, calling for a $1.1 billion increase in state funding for basic education next year alongside investments in school facilities, special education, and the educator workforce. The governor’s proposal followed the recommendations of the Basic Education Funding Commission.
The commission’s January 2024 report called for $5.1 billion in new state funding over seven years to ensure adequate and equitable funding for all public schools, particularly those low-wealth districts devastated by decades of underfunding.
Students have waited long enough
It came in response to a Commonwealth Court ruling from the previous February that Pennsylvania’s current system of funding public education is unconstitutional — a ruling that leaders in the General Assembly, who were defendants in the case, declined to appeal. That lawsuit, originally filed in 2014 by six school districts, parents from across Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania NAACP, and an association of rural and small schools, took years to work its way through the courts to a final ruling.
Now, some legislators have responded to the governor’s proposal with questions about how much the proposal will cost in the long run, how Pennsylvania will pay for it, and whether we can afford investments of this size.
But these are the wrong questions. The students who were in kindergarten when the school funding lawsuit was first filed a decade ago are now in 10th grade. They’ve waited long enough for
our state leaders — elected to solve problems — to do something.
Here are the right questions: If not now, with a historic court ruling and a $14 billion state surplus, then when? If not this plan, the only concrete plan that has been offered to address the lawsuit, then what’s the alternative that will pass constitutional muster? What are the costs of failing to adequately fund our public schools?
The reality is that we can’t afford not to invest in our students and our system of public education. For years, we’ve failed to invest in schools, and we’ve paid for it in population loss, economic stagnation, and declining college enrollment. At the macro level, underfunding our schools has led to lower employment rates and economic growth, lost earnings and tax revenues, an underskilled workforce, and inability to compete with neighboring states.
And on the micro level, think of all the possible future entrepreneurs, inventors, and leaders whose potential was squandered because they attended underfunded, overcrowded, inadequately staffed, crumbling schools where they couldn’t fully explore
and develop their talents. An unconstitutional system
We’ve tried underinvesting for decades, and it hasn’t worked. And no one should be content with an unconstitutional system that is robbing our students of their futures. We can’t afford to wait until those kindergartners have graduated to stop stalling.
We’ve also been so focused on the spending side of the equation that we’re missing out on the return on investment we would get from an adequately and equitably funded public education system. Well-funded, vibrant, successful schools yield increased academic achievement, economic prosperity, and community well-being.
A recent study found that for every dollar invested in our public schools, economic output increases by $6.66, and tax revenue increases by $1.66 — the investments pay for themselves in increased productivity and economic growth.
For lawmakers with sincere concerns about the costs of meeting their constitutional obligations, we can have a good-faith conversation about how to ensure the sustainability of funding over multiple years.
But questions of how we fully fund our schools cannot be used to distract from if we will fully fund our schools – that is non-negotiable. And the same lawmakers clamoring for long-term financial projections about the impact of these investments haven’t shown the same concerns over fiscal responsibility when fighting for multi-year corporate tax cuts that would drain the commonwealth’s coffers over time.
Funding what we value
We can always find enough resources to fund the things we truly value and prioritize. And what could be a higher priority than our children’s futures?
Fortunately, the legislature can easily fund the first year of the governor’s education plan and still have an $11 million surplus remaining. If lawmakers build the seven-year schedule into legislation this budget cycle, as they should, the remaining $11 million surplus will still afford them plenty of time to make a plan for long-term sustainability.
The governor’s plan to fund the first year of a seven-year investment in our public schools is not only morally right: it’s constitutionally required, economically smart, and fiscally responsible. The only alternative that has been offered — doing nothing — will hurt our economy, harm children, and violate the constitution.
This is the year to invest in Pennsylvania’s future — by making a down payment toward fully funding our public schools.