(TNS) — Education advocates during a one-year anniversary celebration of a landmark ruling declaring Pennsylvania’s education funding system unconstitutional called on lawmakers to enshrine their commitment to fairly compensating underfunded schools into law.
The call to action came during a Wednesday news conference by the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center, both of which represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit leading to the ruling. The event honored the one-year anniversary of the ruling and fell one day after Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a proposed budget that would funnel $1.8 billion into K-12 schools.
But now, the law centers are hopeful legislators will not only take action to pass the proposed budget but also create a law that will codify their commitment to students’ education.
“This is an issue about constitutional compliance and ensuring that all children have access to that quality education,” Maura McInerney, the Education Law Center’s legal director, said. “The only way to accomplish that task is to ensure that your remedy is implemented and isn’t subject to the whims of politics; this is an issue that transcends politics whereby there has to be something that is in law in order to ensure that this happens.”
Claudia De Palma, a senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, added that the court’s directive requires a long-term plan that should be enacted into a law “that sets the commitment in years to come so that we know how we’re going to get all the way, not just this budget cycle.”
They noted that currently no laws regarding the topic have been proposed.
The recommendation came exactly a year after Commonwealth Court 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 based on the system’s reliance on property taxes.
The ruling, which was not appealed by Republican lawmakers, led to creation of the Basic Education Funding Commission, which last month issued a report identifying a $5.4 billion “adequacy gap” in school funding that should be made up over a seven-year period. And on Tuesday, Shapiro presented his budget address, calling for a $1.1 billion increase in basic education funding, which include an $872 million “first-year adequacy investment” and $200 million that will go through the basic education funding formula. He also proposed a $50 million bump in special education funding.
His proposal is a $1.072 billion increase for basic education funding, which include an $872 million “first-year adequacy investment” and $200 million that will go through the Basic Education Funding formula. The $50 million for special education is separate.
“Yesterday, Gov. Shapiro’s proposed budget and his support for a long-term plan sets us on a course of constitutional compliance and educational equity for all of our school children,” McInerney said. “With increases in basic education funding of $1.1 billion and the vast majority of that money directed to districts who need it most, this remedy will be transformational for school children in low wealth school districts.”
But the proposed budget has already received pushback from Republicans, with some calling it “absolutely fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable.”
Advocates have already indicated they would take the state back to court if proposed plans “fail our students.” On Wednesday they said a determination on that action could be made “later down the road” if needed.
“We anticipate that the Senate Republicans who did not challenge this on appeal will understand that this issue needs to be addressed and must be a priority,” McInerney said.
Palma added that “if you look at the enormous benefits that the proposed budget would bring across the state you’re not really looking at a partisan issue. You’re really looking at a proposal that is going to support lots of different kinds of constituents with lots of different kinds of representative leaders. We believe that they’ll look at those proposed investments in every corner of the state and constituents will see that it’s within their interest and therefore the legislators’ interest to get on board with that.”
