Pa. lawmakers won’t appeal the landmark school funding decision

Pennsylvania lawmakers won’t appeal the landmark Commonwealth Court decision finding the state’s school funding unconstitutional, letting stand a ruling with sweeping implications for public schools, students, and taxpayers across the state.

But the battle may not be over: Lawyers for the petitioners who sued the state said Monday they’re prepared to go back to court if lawmakers don’t sufficiently address the broken funding system.

Meanwhile, Republican legislative leaders indicated they will continue their push for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers — opposed by House Democrats and at the heart of the current budget impasse — in response to the ruling issued by Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer in February.

“The endless litigation has invited people to believe that money alone will solve the challenges of our public education system,” House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster), who defended the state against the lawsuit, said Monday.

Rather than “perpetuate what has become a government-driven education system that supplants the needs of students and their families in favor of special interests,” Cutler said, House Republicans will pursue changes including “new forms of school choice.”

Lawyers for the petitioners said they do not believe vouchers are part of the solution.

The court found Pennsylvania must provide “a contemporary, effective public education for all students,” Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney with the Public Interest Law Center, said at a news conference Monday. “Vouchers don’t move us one dollar closer to that.”

In her ruling, Jubelirer said that Pennsylvania was denying students adequate education and discriminating against children in low-wealth school districts in violation of the state constitution. Petitioners who filed the lawsuit — including six school districts, seven parents, and two statewide organizations — presented testimony that districts require more than $4 billion in additional funding.

While Republicans argued that Jubelirer erred in her ruling, they chose not to appeal to the state Supreme Court by Friday’s deadline.

“This is a watershed moment,” Katrina Robson, a lawyer with O’Melveny and Myers who also represented petitioners, said Monday. She said that with the appeal deadline passed, Jubelirer’s decision is “judicially enforceable.”

“There is no excuse for any further delay,” Robson said.

It’s unclear how the state might reform its system, which relies heavily on local property taxes to fund public education, contributing to gaps between rich and poor school districts.

Pennsylvania’s $45.5 billion spending plan, held up amid the budget impasse over vouchers, includes more than $700 million in additional money for K-12 schools. But the increases are less than what public education advocates had called for, and don’t keep pace with inflation in many districts. Gov. Josh Shapiro has pledged a broader school funding solution next year.

Lawyers for the petitioners — which include the William Penn School District in Delaware County — said Monday that they expect lawmakers to create a system that assesses how much each school district needs to adequately educate students.

Pennsylvania does have a school funding formula that sends more money to districts with needier students, including those living in poverty or English language learners. However, the formula’s effect is limited, because it only applies to a portion of what the state spends on public education. And it doesn’t calculate what each district needs in total — but decides how to distribute what lawmakers decide is appropriate.

Lawmakers need “to finish the job — not just to talk about how to divide the pie, but determine the total funding necessary to give all children the education they are constitutionally entitled to,” Urevick-Ackelsberg said.

An expert for the petitioners testified during the three-month trial that more than 80% of Pennsylvania school districts are underfunded by a total of $4.6 billion, based on an updated version of an analysis conducted in 2007.

While Jubelirer’s ruling didn’t specify how much additional money schools need, “Pennsylvania schools are underfunded by billions of dollars,” said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, which also represented petitioners.

She and other lawyers said they were working with the legislature — which recently reconvened a commission focused on addressing education funding — to make sure they agree on what Jubelirer’s ruling requires.

If the petitioners don’t think the legislative solution is sufficient, “we are ready to go back to court,” Robson said.