In February 2023, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ruled that “Education is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Constitution to all school-age children residing in the Commonwealth.”
The state constitution’s Education Clause, she argued, “requires that every student be provided with a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically,” through “access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.” She ended her opinion with an unequivocal call to action: “It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”
That obligation is largely about funding.
Pennsylvania’s school funding system relies heavily on local property taxes — more so than almost any other state. And that creates big gaps in the resources available in high-wealth versus low-wealth districts.
In fact, the commonwealth’s gaps in funding between its wealthiest and poorest school districts are larger than similar gaps in all other states. They are so big that Jubelirer found the funding system to “discriminate against students based on the level of income and value of taxable property in their school districts.”
That means that the Basic Education Funding Commission, the group charged with reviewing the distribution of state education funding to Pennsylvania’s school districts, has a particularly weighty responsibility.
Over the last two months, the commission has been holding hearings across the commonwealth (after kicking things off Sept. 12 in Allentown) to learn about the challenges districts face meeting students’ needs, and how more state dollars — to invest in curricular materials and technology, to defray transportation costs, to help hire and retain qualified teachers, to improve conditions in school buildings — might address those challenges. The last hearing is Wednesday, and the commission will then have until early January to issue its recommendations to the governor and Legislature.
Because Pennsylvania is constitutionally obligated to ensure that public schools have the resources required to adequately and equitably educate their children, I am asking the commission to do three things: 1) Look at what you have, 2)
look at how those things aren’t working, and 3) remember that money matters.
Look at what you have: The commonwealth spent substantial time and energy developing a formula to fairly allocate state dollars for basic and special education. It created the Level Up program to specifically target resources to the most under-resourced school districts, it recently revised its process for funding school construction projects and it has strong relationships with federal officials who make decisions on funding that flows to schools.
Together, these are tools that can respond to the funding shortfalls identified by the Commonwealth Court.
Look at how those things aren’t working: The commission has done an incredible job tapping the expertise of teachers, school administrators, researchers and community stakeholders over the last several weeks (I hope the commission continues to seek these experts’ advice as it continues its work).
From them, members heard about problems specific to all of these tools. Concerning the formula for allocating state dollars for basic education, school business officials worry about its volatility and funding “cliffs” (as districts hover around eligibility cut-offs that can prompt big swings in funding). Multiple experts stressed the fact that while the formula guides the allocation of funding, it has no mechanism for quantifying how much districts actually need; adequacy targets are missing.
State support for special education students is also far below what districts are required to spend, and with charter tuition for special education students based on districts’ average special education costs rather than those charter students’ actual needs, even more of these dollars are siphoned away from the students who need them.
Lastly, while the commonwealth has improved its method for supporting school construction, it has provided no funding to help districts cover these costs since 2016. These weaknesses in otherwise powerful tools should be one focus of your work.
Remember that money matters: To quote the Commonwealth Court, “the Court concludes that money does matter, and economically-disadvantaged students and historically underperforming students can overcome challenges if they have access to the right resources that wealthier districts are financially able to provide.”
This was based on substantial evidence, presented over the course of the trial, that showed time and again the impact of adequate resources on student outcomes. Getting a clear sense of the resources required to meet students’ constitutional right to a quality public education should be the other focus of your work.
Karen Beck Pooley was just elected to a third term on the Bethlehem Area School Board. She is a member of the Steering Committee of Pennsylvanians for Fair Funding, and was just voted treasurer of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
