Advocates want billions for underfunded schools in Pa.
Education advocates are asking state officials to make a $2 billion “down payment” to underfunded school districts, the first step in a multi-tiered recommendation to lawmakers who are working to fix Pennsylvania’s education funding system declared unconstitutional last year.
The proposal was presented in a virtual news conference Thursday afternoon by members of Pennsylvania Schools Work, which advocates for adequate and equitable school funding, to Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission. The commission has been traveling Pennsylvania to learn how districts are impacted by the current funding system that a Commonwealth Court judge last February said was inadequate based on its reliance on property taxes. The commission is scheduled to produce a report by Jan. 11.
“Our students are denied the opportunity to succeed academically, socially and civically,” Deborah Gordan Klehr, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based Education Law Center, said during the news conference. “The commission heard that what they must do is identify a goalpost, what level of funding is needed to enable every school district to offer a public education that meets the standards set by the court, and they need a plan to get to that goal post within a reasonable number of years.”
Now, members of the education advocacy groups Children First and Education Voters of Pennsylvania, along with attorneys representing the Public Interest Law Center and the Education Law Center have issued recommendations on what those goalposts should look like. They were also sent to Shapiro in a Dec. 11 letter.
In all, the proposal calls for $2 billion to be distributed to 412 underfunded districts starting in the 202425 school year to allow them to start improving instruction and student services. And officials recommended an additional $1 billion in new funding be distributed each year over the next four fiscal years to close an adequacy gap estimated to total more than $6.2 billion, which was calculated by examining districts that were doing well based on state standards and seeing how much they spent on things such as curriculum and extracurricular activities, Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at Public Interest Law Center, said.
If additional dollars were distributed under that plan, underfunded districts would reach adequate levels in five years, officials said.
Officials are also calling for funding needed for pre-k and facility improvements, along with $417.2 million in additional basic education funding in the state’s upcoming budget and an extra $78 million in special education funding to account for inflation.
“We all know how to fix this system,” Urevick-Ackelsberg said. “It’s really common sense. You use Pennsylvania’s measures of success, you use Pennsylvania’s measures of needs and give every child in Pennsylvania an equal educational opportunity. The judge said it’s time to make the constitutional promise a reality in the Commonwealth and that’s what we need this commission to take the first step to do to truly, truly set the path for every child in this Commonwealth to be able to live up to their potential.”
Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, added that the recommendations will not be a “permanent solution.” Changes may be necessary as populations fluctuate and there are differences in the economy. The current goal, she said, is to propose a solution that will solve the “constitutional crisis now.”
The recommendations come almost a year after Judge Renee Cohn Jubilerer issued her ruling on the lawsuit — filed in 2014 by six school districts, parents and various state organizations including the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center — stating that students in lower-income districts are deprived of opportunities that go to students in wealthier ones.
Since then, Shapiro, a Democrat, and state lawmakers passed a budget that included a $567 million increase in basic education funding and a $50 million increase in special education funding. It was the first step in solving the funding issue, but those dollars largely accounted for inflationary and cost-of-living increases. At the time, Mr. Shapiro — who as attorney general filed a brief supporting the suit — said the ruling was a “call to action.”
The ruling also kickstarted the Basic Education Funding Commission, which traveled the state meeting with school officials to hear how they’re impacted by the current system. One earlier testifier, education funding researcher Matthew Kelly of Penn State University, initially suggested there was a $6.2 billion funding adequacy gap statewide. At one hearing held at Pittsburgh Public Schools, Allegheny Intermediate Unit Executive Director Robert Scherrer cautioned the commission to maintain a baseline in its new funding formula to make sure districts do not end up getting less money.
The commission will now issue a report by next week, prior to Shapiro giving his 2024 budget address.
“The members of the commission are at a critical juncture, a fork in the road,” Klehr said. “They can advance a transparent and evidence based proposal for a new funding system that ensures that every student has access to a comprehensive, effective and contemporary public education or they can shirk their responsibility to respond to the court ruling. If they choose that path and continue down it it will take state officials right back to the court that has already ruled that the system is fundamentally broken.”
She added that attorneys representing the school districts, families and communities included in the original lawsuit are “prepared to go back to court” if the proposed plan “fails our students.”
“What we need to see in Harrisburg is progress toward closing that gap for each and every school district in the Commonwealth,” Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, said. “We know from our work all over the state that this is supported in rural, urban and suburban communities and that everyone everywhere, children in all of our communities, would benefit if the state legislature and Gov. Shapiro can come together and really make this a reality for children.”