FIGHT FOR FAIRNESS
Montco vigil one of many in Pa. for schools funding
“What do we want? Funding. When do we want it? Now.”
The chant was one of several shouted Tuesday night in a Norristown Area School District event billed as “Spotlight on Education Justice: A Vigil for Fair Funding.”
More than 50 people gathered on the lawn of Eisenhower Science and Technology Leadership Academy, located at 1601 Markley St. in Norristown, to stand in solidarity with school districts across the commonwealth to spotlight the need for equitable education just days following the conclusion of the fair funding trial in Harrisburg.
Children First and Education Voters of Pennsylvania coordinated a number of vigils Tuesday that took place at varying times and places including Allentown, Lancaster, Norristown, Philadelphia, Pottstown, and Reading.
Hosted by representatives from the Norristown Area School District, students, teachers, advocacy groups, elected officials, and area residents were steadfast in the belief that their school district deserves better.
“Upper Merion’s building a $120 million high school. Just down Johnson Highway, they’re building an $80 million middle school,” said School Board President Phil Daniels. “We’re replacing our cafeteria.”
“That’s where we’re at, and that’s what this sort of fight about the dollars is all about,” he continued. “We deserve the same chances and the same kinds of facilities that our surrounding districts have and that’s why we’re doing this.”
At the heart of the issue is the amount of money the state provides to school districts compared to the local tax burden. In poorer districts, local taxes do not generate the revenue that richer districts do, creating a gap in education resources. Recommendations for a state fair funding formula to address the gap were established in 2015, according to the Campaign for Fair Education Funding. The formula takes student count, student-based factors and school district based factors into account when determining the amount of funding for a given school district. However, the formula has only been applied
to a portion of state funding each year.
In Montgomery County, the leadership of school districts in Norristown and Pottstown have been vocal advocates in this fight for fair funding.
“I think everything that went on today is about awareness, and it is about trying to raise a louder public voice on the injustice of how schools like Norristown have been just historically and drastically underfunded for as long as they have,” said Superintendent Christopher Dormer.
Dormer added that Tuesday’s vigil served the purpose of sharing a message.
“The voices of a larger percentage of voters … is what your elected officials need to hear in loud unison: that our districts have been underfunded, our children are being cheated, our community is therefore being cheated, and overtaxed because the commonwealth has not done what it promised it would do, which is provide for a thorough and efficient system of education by funding our schools fairly and adequately, and here in Norristown, that’s the tune of every year we’ve been shortchanged $15 million,” Dormer said.
Being “shortchanged” has had a massive impact on opportunities to better develop the school district, Dormer said, which serves 8,000 students in Norristown, along with East and West Norriton townships.
“To me that is 70 staff members that I’ve not been able to hire,” he continued. “That is $5 million in tax breaks we’ve not been able to afford our community and that’s just nothing short of criminal. That is theft of service, and that is theft of opportunities to both our families, and our children, not only in Norristown, but across the commonwealth.”
Along with seven parents, the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, six school districts sued the state in November 2014 represented by attorneys from O’Melveny & Myers LLP as well as the Education and Public Interest Law Center.
After years of legal wrangling, the case made it to trial in November, 2021 before Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer. The case ended last week with closing arguments. A decision by the judge is expected to take several months.
Education Law Center Legal Director Maura McInerney was one of the lawyers tasked with arguing the case over the last few months.
“Students who need the most are getting the least,” McInerney said during her remarks on Tuesday.
Children First hosted a virtual rally in January calling for continued support of fair funding. Nearly 100 education officials, advocates, parents, and students across the state, including several school board members from historically underfunded districts in Montgomery County, participated.
Now two months later, advocates have maintained their resolve for equitable funding.
Thaddeus Peay II is a product of the Norristown Area School District. He attended Eisenhower Middle School and graduated from Norristown Area High School in 2017. Peay, 23, is also the education chair of the Greater Norristown NAACP.
“Our students deserve people who are going to advocate for them and fight for their education,” he said. “So just being an alum being back here to have the opportunity to fight for my community in this way means everything.”
“I always say that issues become issues when people make noise about them, and right here, we’re making noise about fair funding,” Peay said. “We’re making noise about the fact that our schools have been inadequately funded for decades.”
Along with Dormer, McInerney and Peay, a lineup of eight speakers at Tuesday’s vigil ranging from school board members to education advocacy representatives called for fair funding.
Attendees held up signs. School Board Vice President Monica D’Antonio led several chants throughout the evening held in both English and Spanish.
Norristown Area School District students also spoke out.
Dinia Hernandez, 17, a Norristown Area High School junior, said she initially learned about the fair funding trial after talking with Peay.
“The inequality is really visible once you take a second to look at it … it affects us in every way when it comes to lunches, books, extracurriculars, things like that, and getting the bare minimum is not enough sometimes, especially when it comes to your education,” Hernandez said.
Yesenia Zavala-Hernandez, 18, is a senior at Norristown Area High School. She spent the beginning of her high school career at Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia and came to Norristown Area High School as a junior.
She noted stark differences between the two schools.
Zavala-Hernandez has two younger brothers: one in high school and the other in middle school. While she will soon graduate, ZavalaHernandez expressed concern for younger students.
“I feel like it’s really important to take the time, the energy and the money to invest in students. These are your students. This is what you’re putting out into the future,” Zavala-Hernandez said. “School is supposed to help students grow and learn, and how can they do that if there’s no change?”
“They need funding. They really do need funding,” she continued. “I’ve witnessed it and I feel so upset to know that I was only a bridge over, and I was so fortunate, and privileged enough to have so many things, and coming here I’m like these kids need help, they need the aid and the fact that they’re not getting it really does upset me.”
Participants in Norristown appeared hopeful about the outcome of the trial.
“I think the results of the trial should be in our favor of showing how Pennsylvania has unconstitutionally funded the schools,” Peay said. “So I think the outcome of the trial should go in our favor, and show that Pennsylvania has been wrong, and that students deserve to get an adequate and a thorough and efficient education.”
Dormer noted that a favorable result could be a real game changer for the district.
“A positive verdict again means $15 million a year, let alone if there’s compensatory damages,” Dormer said. “It means we can start to correct decades of hard choices, of staff furloughs, program curtailments, of lost opportunities to our kids, and we can start to undo the wrongs that have been done here because we are just a community that can’t generate tax dollars and more affluent communities can.”
“Not through any fault of anybody that lives here,” he continued. “That to me is what a positive outcome means … but let’s not forget the legislature continues to have the opportunity to make this right and they choose, they choose not to fund schools the way that they should be funded.”
Peay encouraged ongoing action, participation from the community in support for fair funding.
“The trial is over, the closing arguments might have been said, but the fight for educational equity in our community is not over,” he said. “So if you’re not involved please get involved in any way that you can.”