Opinion: Fair funding long overdue in Pennsylvania school districts

Last Friday, public school advocates rallied in Harrisburg to support six Pennsylvania school districts and other stakeholder groups in an historic school funding lawsuit. The suit asserts that state government leaders are failing to uphold the General Assembly’s constitutional obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient” system of public education. They are right. The lack of thoroughness and efficiency jeopardizes the future of our commonwealth’s citizens.

Pennsylvania inadequately funds K-12 education — ranking 45th nationally for the state’s financial commitment to education. A recent Penn State study concluded that school districts across Pennsylvania are underfunded by $4.6 billion dollars according to the state’s own School Code requirements for adequacy.

Those of us living in the State College Area School District are lucky. Our district isn’t yet forced to choose between transportation and orchestra based on available funding. But make no mistake, districts in our state face this scenario and even more difficult decisions year after year.

State College weathers the General Assembly’s refusal to adequately fund public education better than many of our neighbors because local taxpayers make up the difference. During the 2019-20 school year, the state provided 18% of district’s budget while local sources of revenue accounted for more than 80%. Other districts in the commonwealth continue to raise local taxes but are unable to generate the revenue necessary to keep up with their students’ needs, building renovations, and mandated retirement and charter school payments.

Pennsylvania does not distribute education funding equitably, and it is currently distributed in a way that makes it worse. While it’s bad that that half of all students in Pennsylvania are underfunded, it is appalling that four out of five Black and Latinx students attend structurally underfunded districts. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics showed that in 2015 Pennsylvania ranked last nationally at providing additional funding to school districts in poverty.

The state legislature failed to act this year when Pennsylvania received $7.3 billion as part of the American Rescue Plan. This money would have gone far to address Pennsylvania’s numerous ailing systems, including education. The Legislature could have supported Philadelphia’s school district, whose buildings are riddled with asbestos and mold and is often held up as one of the worst districts in the nation. Or the Panther Valley School District, which currently has up to 30 students in each kindergarten classroom with a single teacher there to support student learning. Or the Pottstown School District, which cut foreign language and music programs in their middle schools due to funding shortages.

Instead, the Legislature has spent a measly $1.04 billion of the ARP money and has let the rest sit in a rainy-day fund. Of the 25 states analyzed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, only three other states spent a lower percentage of their ARP funds than Pennsylvania. The Legislature has failed to recognize the storm that’s inundating our school system — and the water is rising fast.

The initial days of the funding trial were heartbreaking. The litany of failures our legislature created are nauseating. We hear a lot about numbers: budget, testing, and poverty statistics. But in the words of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Katrina Robson, “(T)his isn’t a case about numbers. It’s a case about people — about children struggling to overcome circumstances they can’t control.”

If you believe all students deserve schools that can meet their needs, can attract, hire, and retain qualified teachers, can update their curriculum on a periodic basis, and can provide safe buildings, buses, fine arts and sports programs, then you should tune into this lawsuit and support the plaintiffs. For more information or to follow the lawsuit, please visit thoroughandefficient.org.

No matter the verdict, we implore you to call on the General Assembly to fairly fund our schools.