The Law Center's mission under this agenda is to make Brown v. Board of
Education a living reality, ensuring equal access for all children to a quality
educational experience.
The Law Center is working closely with its clients and collaborators to pursue equalization of
resources for all of Pennsylvania's school children. Towards this effort, the Law Center has
provided support and technical assistance to Philadelphia's Close the Gap Coalition, comprised
of advocacy organizations including Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, the Black
Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, ASPIRA and the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, as
well as the Pennsylvania Campaign for Public Education, which in addition to the Close the Gap
Coalition, includes the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations, the League of Women Voters,
the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the Coatesville Taxpayers Association and other
organizations. Other groups which the Law Center collaborates with on these issues are Good
Schools Pennsylvania, the Educational Policy and Leadership Center, and the Educational Law
Center.
The Law Center has conducted analysis of per pupil spending patterns since 1994,
revealing the serious statewide disparity in education spending, not only among
all of the districts but also between largely minority and largely white school
district
Chester Upland Parents File Petition for Immediate
Court Action in Commonwealth Court
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and
the Education Law Center today filed a Petition for immediate action in
Commonwealth Court on behalf of five families of Chester Upland School
District students and Chester Upland Citizens for Educational Progress,
asking the court to ensure the continuing education of all students in the
District in accordance with state law mandates.
"Petitioners now ask this Court to enforce the minimum rights that state law and the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantee: the right to an education," wrote the attorneys in the petition, which was filed along with a Motion for Emergency Relief citing irreparable harm to students in the absence of court intervention.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education and the school district have reached an interim agreement today to permit schools to stay open for a few weeks, but there is no long-term plan in place to ensure the rights of students to receive an education in accordance with state standards for the full school year.
“We are extremely concerned that the two public entities involved, the Commonwealth and the school district, are not complying with the requirements of state law to ensure the continued education for children in Chester,” said Law Center attorney Sonja Kerr.
"While the state and the school district continue to debate this matter, the education of these students hangs in the balance. This lawsuit seeks to ensure that the rights of students are fully protected despite the financial crisis," said Education Law Center attorney Maura McInerney. "The families are asking the court to bring the two sides together immediately to resolve the crisis and keep all students in school in accordance with state standards. The best interests of the children must be our priority.”
Read the Petition
Read the Motion
for Emergency Relief
Law Center Intervenes for Students & Families in
Chester-Upland in Federal Lawsuit
On Tuesday, January 17th, the Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia filed a motion to intervene on behalf of a group
students and families in Chester Upland School District’s federal lawsuit
against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit seeks resources from
the State that would allow the cash-strapped District to remain open and
continue educating the students of Chester.
The Law Center’s intervening complaint seeks to
represent Chester Upland parents and students in the case because, as the
complaint states, “neither current party is solely devoted to the needs and
rights of the students and their parents, and each of the current parties
has or could have interests that may be adverse to the needs and rights of
the students and their parents.”
The complaint requests that the Commonwealth be
ordered to provide appropriated funds to the District so that it may
continue operation; that an independent party be appointed to analyze
information from the District and Commonwealth to represent the interest of
Chester Upland families; and that steps be taken to ensure the rights of
students with disabilities are not violated.
Reports suggest that the District and the State
have reached an agreement to keep the District running through the end of
the month, but the lawsuit is expected to continue until the parties reach a
long-term solution. Chester Charter schools have also filed to intervene in
the case.
Motion to
Intervene
Complaint for Intervention
Last week, the Law Center sent a letter to Governor Corbett detailing the potentially catastrophic consequences of failing to assist Chester Upland, and reminding the Governor of the Commonwealth’s obligations to educate Pennsylvania students. Read it here
NAACP
and PILCOP Report
Dramatic Reduction in Lebanon Truancy Fines
Following a protest lodged in 2009 and a federal class action filed early this year, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and the Lebanon NAACP are pleased to announce that analysis of court records in the Lebanon School District shows that the Magistrate Judges have stopped issuing truancy fines in excess of $300 and have reduced 91% of the excessive fines originally imposed that were still outstanding – wiping out more than $450,000 in truancy fines owed by parents. In the past year, the District has reduced the number of truancy summons it filed in court by 25%, and the fines this year total less than 43% the dollar amount of the fines imposed two years ago.
Despite these positive developments, the District has continued to oppose repaying any of the excessive fines already paid to them, totaling about $108,000. Also, the NAACP continues to note that the District rarely (if ever) follows the state Department of Education’s recommendations that schools arrange truancy conferences with parents before turning to the courts.
“We welcome the actions of the district judges,” said Jerome Mondesire, president of the NAACP Statewide Conference. “In light of that action we think it is particularly deplorable that the School District is continuing to hold on to the excessive fines which were paid over to them. This merely punishes the people who were able to promptly pay their fines.”
PROPOSED VOUCHER BILL VIOLATES PA
CONSTITUTION, ACCORDING TO ANALYSIS
According to an analysis conducted by a coalition
of public education advocates including the Law Center’s Michael Churchill,
the creation of a taxpayer-funded voucher system as proposed in Senate Bill
1 (also known as the Opportunity Scholarship and Educational Improvement Tax
Credit Act) would violate the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The analysis explains that S.B. 1 violates
multiple provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which forbids the use
of taxpayer money to support religious schools, or in fact to support any
school not under the "absolute control" of the Commonwealth without a
two-thirds majority vote.
Finally, the report concludes that establishing a
voucher system would violate the Pennsylvania's Constitution guarantee of
religious freedom, which reads: "no man can of right be compelled to attend,
erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against
his consent; no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or
interfere with the rights of conscience." Because religious schools charge
on average only one-third the tuition of non-religious private schools, many
low-income students would be pressured to attend religious schools whose
instruction conflicted with their own beliefs -- and taxpayers would have no
choice but to support such instruction.
Read the report here.
CITY DEMANDS DISTRICT OVERSIGHT, BUT RIGHT FIGHT
IS WITH HARRISBURG
By Michael Churchill, Public Interest Law Center of
Philadelphia
What John Street was forced to give away, Mayor
Nutter is taking back: City oversight of the School District. Hidden in
deceptively bureaucratic language, that is the stunning message of the
request for an “Educational Accountability Agreement” Mayor Nutter sent to
Chairman Archie and the other members of the SRC last week. The
message was late in coming, arriving only after the SRC and the District had
destroyed their own credibility. But it is only possible because of the
vacuum in leadership from Harrisburg.
Read more...
LAW CENTER ATTORNEY TESTIFIES BEFORE SRC
On Wednesday, May 18th, Law Center attorney Michael Churchill addressed the School Reform Commission (SRC) in response to a report issued by the Accountability Review Council (ARC), urging them to sharpen their analysis of the Renaissance School initiative over the coming year.
Renaissance Schools, Churchill noted, are a key element of the District's strategy to close the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students on the one hand and white students on the other. While Churchill commended the SRC for an overall increase in district test scores over the past three years, he stressed the report's finding that the achievement gap has remained the same as overall scores have increased.
In order to close the gap, Churchill argued that closer analysis of what is working and what isn't will be necessary. He urged the ARC to conduct school-by-school analysis that measures the effect of "programmatic differences between the schools," such as staffing, educational programs, extra-curricular activities, school safety strategies, professional development for teachers and staff, and school leadership.
With that kind of detailed analysis, Churchill argued, the SRC and school community members will be able to make informed decisions in the future about which programs aren’t working and need to be cut, and which have been successful and should be extended and expanded upon.
Read Michael Churchill’s testimony.
Law Center Attorney Testifies before U.S. Department of
Education Commission
On Friday, April 29th, Law Center attorney Michael Churchill
spoke before the
Equity and
Excellence Commission of the U.S. Department of Education on the
effects unequal school funding has had in Pennsylvania, particularly in
Philadelphia public schools. Congressman Chaka Fattah also testified, as did a
number of education policy experts, public education advocates, and students
from Philadelphia schools.
One of three featured speakers, along with David Sciarra of the Education Law
Center and Sheilah Vance of the Institute for Educational Equity and
Opportunity, Churchill told the crowd, "To say a public school has failed these
children is to identify the wrong perpetrator - it is the legislators,
who have refused to produce adequate resources for these children's schools, who
have failed the students."
"Frankly," he continued, "I am tired of hearing that getting poor and minority
children out of failing schools is the new civil rights battle when we have
never delivered on the old civil right of equitable distribution of resources so
that all actually have a real chance for an adequate public education."
After Churchill spoke, the Commission invited public comment, and a number of
Philadelphia students and education advocates took the opportunity to speak on
issues such as school violence, discrimination against immigrant students, and
unequal funding. A group of students from the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools
spoke about how inadequate resources and funding have led to school cultures
permeated with violence in Philadelphia schools – not only physical violence,
they said, but the structural violence of unequal opportunity.
Others who testified represented a variety of advocacy groups, including the
Asian Students Association, Action United, and Education Voters of Pennsylvania.
Read the rest
of Churchill's Testimony
LAW CENTER RECOMMENDS CHANGES IN PA STATE
CONSTITUTION TO MAKE EDUCATION MANDATE ENFORCABLE, FUNDING MORE EQUITABLE
On Wednesday, March 16th, Law Center attorney Michael Churchill
testified in front the Public Education Subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Bar
Association's Constitutional Review Commission at Widener Law School in
Harrisburg, Pa. Invited to discuss shortcomings in the current state
constitution as it pertains to public education and to recommend revisions,
Churchill focused on the state court system's current inability to enforce
the Constitution's mandate for a "thorough and efficient" public school
system and on the inequality ingrained in the school system by the low
proportion of school funding provided by the state. PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTER
JOINS PHILADELPHIA EDUCATION FUND AND OTHERS IN CALL TO SUPPORT SCHOOL
FUNDING Council members will be responsible for: - Making recommendations to select school turnaround teams
- Helping to plan the changeover to a Renaissance School
- Monitoring Renaissance School progress toward performance targets for students -- Advising on: instruction/teaching, curriculum, climate and safety, school budget, Extra-curricular/enrichment programs and activities, parent/community engagement plan
Download
the flyer to learn more To get involved, contact Rachel Bowers
at
(215) 384-6252 or rachelbowers19@gmail.com
Download the Press
Releasea>
Download the Report, "A System
out of Control"
September 16, 2010 -- The Law Center joined a coalition of advocacy groups as a signatory to a letter that calls on gubernatorial candidates Tom Corbett and Dan Onorato to implement School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) in schools across Pennsylvania. SWPBS, an evidence-based, proactive strategy to improve school safety and establish a positive educational environment, is an alternative to reactive disciplinary systems such as zero tolerance policies, which have failed to improve student behavior or school safety but have proven to be tragically effective at pushing adolescents – especially racial minorities – out of school and into the juvenile justice system.
SWPBS is already producing impressive results in schools across Illinois and Colorado, including a reduction in out-of-school suspensions, a drastic decrease in office referrals saving countless instructional hours, and a significant increase in standardized math and reading scores relative to non-SWPBS schools. A handful of districts in Pennsylvania have already begun to implement SWPBS, and we hope that Pennsylvania’s next governor will support the effort to fully implement the program across the state.
A list of
schools already implementing SWPBS in Pennsylvania
2. Incentives for Equity: D
3. Standards and Evaluations: A-
4. Professional Development: B
TRUANCY FINES PLACE EXCESSIVE
BURDEN ON FAMILIES IN LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA
LAW CENTER SUBMITS COMMENTS TO IRRC ABOUT HIGH STAKES
TESTING PROPOSED FOR PENNSYLVANIA
Read the Law
Center's comments
July 8, 2009 - The School Reform Commission of the School District of
Philadelphia unanimously voted to end the long running Philadelphia School
Desegregation Case with a consent order in which the District commits to improve
educational opportunities to the District's lowest performing and racially
isolated schools. The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia hailed
this historic agreement.
“If these commitments are carried out with fidelity they should go a long
way towards aligning resources with needs in Philadelphia schools and
reducing the academic
achievement disparities between minority and white students in the district,”
said Law Center attorney Michael Churchill, who represents community interveners
in the case. “It will be up to the School District to live up to its
pledges, and for the community to monitor the District to ensure that all
students are provided with equal opportunities, now that the court is ending
its supervision. This Consent
Agreement provides the foundation for progress, and the transparency to see
if it is actually happening,” Churchill said. The Consent Agreement signed by the District, the
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and ASPIRA of Pennsylvania,
ends the 39 year old desegregation case in exchange for the
District’s commitment to implement its 5 year strategic Plan,
Imagine 2014. It provides a
public process for reviewing progress in reducing racial achievement gaps
and resource inequities, and implementation schedules for specific reforms
in the lowest performing schools. In turn, the Agreement gives the District
flexibility to change plans if money is not available for implementation or
in other circumstances. The
Agreement binds the District for 5 years except for the provision for an
independent body to report yearly on the progress in reducing achievement
gaps and resource inequalities which runs for ten years.
The Consent Agreement was approved by Commonwealth
Court Judge Doris Smith-Ribner after a hearing on
Monday, July 13,
2009. The approved agreement
closes a case brought in 1971 by the Human Relations
Commission which initially sought mandatory
transfers and busing. Instead
the Court approved a voluntary transfer and magnet program proposed by the
District. In 1993 Judge Smith-Ribner
denied the PHRC's request for increased bussing
and the next year she denied
the District’s request to end the case, finding that the District remained
segregated and that the
“District
is failing or refusing to provide an equal educational opportunity and a
quality education to children attending racially isolated minority schools.”
Subsequently the District was ordered to undertake a number of
reforms, including full day kindergarten, a more rigorous and uniform
curriculum, and increased support services for students in low performing
schools. Other changes like
smaller class size were introduced and then abandoned when financial
problems hit the District. The attempt of Judge Smith-Ribner to require the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania help pay for the cost of reforms she ordered as
necessary to comply with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act ended in 1999
when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that there was no procedure
available to add the state to the lawsuit. The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia has
represented ASPIRA of Pennsylvania in the proceeding since 1993 in order to
present the needs of students facing unequal opportunities.
“This settlement is possible because for the first time the District,
under the leadership of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman,
has presented a five year plan for
improvements which has closing the achievement gap between the races at the
heart of the plan. Although the
District has doubled the percentage of students proficient or better on the
Pennsylvania state tests, the gap in reading and math scores is still
approximately 24 percentage points between African Americans and Latinos on
the one hand and White students on the other.
"We believe Imagine 2014 and the specific programs spelled out
in the Agreement will finally end this tragic failure,” Churchill said.
The Consent Agreement attempts to provide needed resource
reallocation to low performing schools which have large concentrations of
minority students. It requires
that new programs which are phased in to begin in those schools.
It requires additional resources be given to schools which have lower
than average teacher payrolls because of inexperienced teachers,
commits the District to ending the use of seniority in selecting
teachers at the low performing schools beginning next year, and commits the
District to a pilot program for giving schools additional funding based on
factors related to the additional cost of educating students, such as the
number in poverty, English language learners, or below proficient in
achievement. Another
provision calls for the District to improve teaching by evaluating
teachers instructional practices and providing professional development
based on those evaluations beginning this school year and provides for
common planning time for those teachers starting next year.
When the case was brought white
students were approximately 35 percent of the District’s students; today
they are 14 percent. In 150 of
the District’s 284 schools more than 90% of the students are African
American and Hispanic. As a
consequence, improving the education programs offered in those schools
became the focus of Judge
Smith’s orders, making the Philadelphia Desegregation suit one of the very
first to focus on resource gaps between schools within a single district and
on the achievement gap between minority and white students.
Press
release and summary of the Consent Agreement
Michael
Churchill's remarks to the School Reform Commission Press coverage of the School Reform
Commission's vote
Imagine 2014 -
the School District of Philadelphia's strategic plan
March 31, 2009 - The Law Center, in collaboration with dozens of citywide organizations, launched a new, powerful campaign to secure quality teachers for every child in Philadelphia
at a press conference at City Hall.
The Campaign, entitled "Effective Teaching for All Children: What it Will Take" declares that "all children in Philadelphia have the right to have consistently effective teaching in every content area and at every grade level, Pre-K through 12."
The Campaign's platform points out that "too many inexperienced teachers are concentrated in high-poverty and needy schools where they stay only briefly." As a result, students most in need "have the least chance of being taught by a stable, talented combination of effective new and veteran teachers."
There are currently a number of opportunities that
make this the right time to improve teacher quality in every school in the School District of Philadelphia:
• Dr. Arlene Ackerman, the new superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, has declared her intent to equalize resources across schools.
• The Mayor of Philadelphia, the Governor of Pennsylvania and the President of the United States all have made teacher quality a high priority.
• Additional funding for schools will be available through the economic "stimulus" package.
• The contract between the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is currently being renegotiated.
• Teachers are dedicated to creating and maintaining a high-caliber, professional workforce.
To achieve these goals, the Law Center and its partners, the Philadelphia Cross City Campaign for School Reform and the Education First Compact, offer six concrete and essential steps:
1. Distribute experienced and effective teachers equitably across District schools.
2. Create performance standards for teachers and principals that are aligned with student success, and implement them consistently district-wide.
3. Create an effective professional development strategy that is guided by teacher input and creates a "culture of collaboration" in schools.
4. Give school leaders the tools and resources to hire and create teams of effective teachers.
5. Create a "deep bench" of applicants for teaching positions.
6. Open school with NO teacher vacancies.
These changes can be made but only if we demand them. The Law Center
encourages you to take the following steps to help:
• Learn about the platform and endorse the campaign at
http://phillytqe.org/
• Talk to school district officials and teachers and demand that the contract resulting from the current contract negotiations contain the reforms necessary to improve teacher quality and equality.
• Talk to your elected representatives, parents and students about what it will take to improve teacher quality and get them involved.
• Insist upon accountability from all of the decision makers: district officials, teachers, elected representatives.
THE LAW CENTER RELEASES PUBLIC COMMENT
ON LOWER MERION REDISTRICTING PLAN
On January 6, 2009, at the request of several concerned Lower Merion School
District parents, the Law Center submitted comments to the District on the
latest of its proposed redistricting plans. The District intends to evenly
distribute the district's student populations between its two high schools -
Lower Merion High School and Harriton High School -
and has expressed interest in equalizing not only
the number of students but student diversity as well.
The parents who requested the Law Center's comments are concerned that LMSD's
proposed plan transfers a disproportionate number of black students, thereby
dividing a valued and diverse community which tends to
reside closer to Lower Merion High School. The Law Center
submitted comments intended to "provide guidance as to what the law requires of
LMSD, including the factors that LMSD should
consider in determining whether its plan conforms to the law."
Law
Center Public comments regarding LMSD redistricting plan
Press coverage of the plan and Law Center comments
From left to right, Law Center attorney Michael Churchill, Penn History PhD candidate Patrick Spero, IFEEO Executive Director Sheilah Vance, Congressman Chaka Fattah, Law Center Executive Director Jennifer Clarke, The Campaign for Educational Equity's Michael Rebell and The Education Law Center's David Sciarra.
On September 8, 2008 the Law Center participated in a Congressional Briefing organized by the office of PA Representative Chaka Fattah on the topic of educational equity.
Based on the findings of the Law Center's report Education in the 50 States: A Deskbook of the History of State Constitutions and Laws about Education published by the Institute for Educational Equity and Opportunity (IFEEO), the Law Center's Jennifer Clarke and Michael Churchill joined a panel of education experts to discuss the role that the federal government should play in educating the country's youth.
Download an excerpt from the book on our Publications page
LARGE STATE EDUCATION FUNDING GAPS CONTINUE IN 2006-2007
THE LAW CENTER'S MICHAEL CHURCHILL GIVES PRESENTATION ON EDUCATION FINANCE AT
THE 20TH ANNUAL PBA MINORITY ATTORNEY CONFERENCE
To fix these problems, Churchill recommended that a few changes be made to
the Pennsylvania Constitution. First, he recommended that the Constitution
explicitly grant the Courts the ability to enforce its mandate to create an
effective school system. Next, he recommended an amendment that would set
State funding at 50% of the funding for public schools -- the State currently
provides only 35% of the funding for public schools, and local governments
are forced to provide the rest through property taxes, a burden that weighs
especially heavily in poor areas. Churchill also recommended amendments
mandating early childhood education and providing for a study every 5 years
to determine the funding needed for students to meet the State's educational
standards. Also testifying at the hearing was Molly Hunter,
Director of Education Justice at the Education Law Center.
Read Michael Churchill's testimony.
Read Molly
Hunter's testimony.
In response to cuts of $1 billion from funding for basic education in
Governor Corbett's proposed budget, the Law Center has joined with the
Philadelphia Education Fund and twelve other advocacy groups calling on
state officials to maintain strong funding for Pennsylvania school
districts.
In an op-ed written on behalf of this coalition of advocacy groups published
on March 13, Philadelphia Education Fund Executive Director Carol Fixman
argues that "[t]here is no better investment in our city, our region, and
our state" than strong support for our public schools. As the op-ed
explains, increased funding over the past eight years has led to
dramatically improved outcomes for students in Pennsylvania, especially in
Philadelphia. With continued support and accountability, public schools can
continue on this trajectory.
Read the full op-ed
here, written on behalf of the following organizations:
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Jennifer R.
Clarke, Executive Director
Philadelphia Education Fund, Carol S. Fixman, Executive
Director
Urban League of Philadelphia, Patricia A. Coulter,
President & CEO
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Ann Schmieg,
Senior Vice President
The Enterprise Center, Della Clark, President
Public Citizens for Children and Youth, Shelly Yanoff,
Executive Director
Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, Darryl
Coates, Executive Director
MicroSociety, Inc., Carolynn King Richmond, President & CEO
Keystone State Education Coalition, Lawrence A. Feinberg,
Co-Chairman
Education Law Center, Len Rieser, Executive Director
Education Voters Pennsylvania, Susan Gobrewski, Executive
Director
Children’s Literacy Initiative, Linda Katz, Executive
Director
Association of Philadelphia School Librarians, Carol W.
Heinsdorf, President
PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL DISTRICT REQUESTS PARENT VOLUNTEERS FOR NEW SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL
The Law Center is pleased to share information about this opportunity for parents, students, community members/community organizations, faith-based institutions and educators to get involved in an initiative to provide support and guidance to Philadelphia Renaissance Schools.
NAACP AND PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTER ANNOUNCE FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST LEBANON SCHOOL DISTRICT
January 20, 2011 – The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania NAACP announce the filing of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against the Lebanon School District that requests that the District be compelled to stop collecting and repay 500 truancy fines assessed illegally in an abusive and counterproductive truancy policy.
Along with the lawsuit, the NACCP is calling upon Lebanon to reform its truancy policy to stop using court fines as its only means to end truancy. The Law Center has discovered that over the course of six years the District took parents and students to court more than 8,000 times and was awarded more than $1.3 million in fines. During the 2008-2009 school year alone, the District levied almost $500,000 in truancy fines and costs, more than ten times more per student than nearby Lancaster School District. In addition to violating a state law, these fines have led to the incarceration of parents and high dropout rates, and they have failed to reduce truancy.
The Law Center also issued a report revealing that the Lebanon School District and local courts this last year have secretly reduced more than 300 fines by nearly $250,000 in response to the complaints of the Law Center and NAACP about its illegal practices. But hundreds of other families who suffered from the truancy policies are still paying their fines. Meanwhile, the families that fully paid their fines have been left out in the cold.
The plaintiffs are calling upon the District to adopt a constructive truancy policy, such as is outlined in guidelines from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which directs districts to reach out to parents first and use courts and fines as a last resort, thus making a positive effort to reduce truancy and make all students feel welcome at school. Though the lawsuit is being filed on behalf of all students burdened with these illegal fines, regardless of race, the lack of welcome in Lebanon schools seems to be a problem especially for minority students. The excessive fines seem to have been disproportionately targeted toward the District’s growing minority populations, and at the request of the Lebanon chapter of the NAACP, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Education is currently conducting an investigation into the alleged racial discrimination.
“We are glad that the School District has admitted that its high fines were illegal by reducing so many fines,” says Michael Churchill of the Law Center. “But they can’t just pick and chose who they will do this for, and it is unfair not to return the thousands of dollars they collected that they were never entitled to. Moreover, the high fines are just a symptom of a problem of over-relying on the courts to deal with truancy. It is time the District to start working with parents and the community to solve this problem rather than turning to the courts as the very first step.”
Letitia Fuentes Keith, President of the Lebanon Chapter of the NAACP stated: “We welcome the investigation by the US Department of Education, because we are concerned that the District has been using truancy fines more harshly against minority parents. None of the families we have had had contact with has been invited to the school for a Truancy Elimination conference. It appears the school is more interested in pushing the students out rather than finding a way to keep them in school.”
REPORT SHOWS RIGID DISCIPLINARY POLICIES DISPORPORTIONATELY AFFECT MINORITY STUDENTS AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Youth United for Change and the Advancement Project held a press conference on January 13th in City Hall to discuss some of the negative effects of the School District of Philadelphia’s zero tolerance policy. The two groups jointly released a report on Philadelphia’s zero tolerance policy highlighting the counterproductive outcomes of the policy.
The zero tolerance policy in Philadelphia allows for suspension, expulsion or even arrest after one offense, some of which are relatively minor. The policy was put in place to make schools safer, but it has led to increased dropout rates and a greater number of students being referred to the juvenile justice system.
At the press conference, the Youth United for Change performed a compelling demonstration of the criminalization that students experience when entering school. Audience members and the media at the press conference had to walk through fake metal detectors and were searched by members of the Youth United for Change dressed up as police officers carrying hand held metal detectors simulating the treatment that students face every school day.
The report demonstrates that the policy disproportionally affects Black and Latino students and students with disabilities. For example, the report found that students with disabilities were 2.3 times more likely to be transferred to alternative schools than their non-disabled peers, and students with specific learning disabilities represented almost 8,000 of the District's 46,000 suspensions during the 2009-2010 school year.
The report recommends that the school district try to lower the number of suspensions and expulsions by taking a number of steps, including reallocating resources to increase the number of guidance counselors and psychologists and decrease the number of security guards, and setting up a discipline oversight committee to review discipline policies.
Read the full report.
LAW CENTER JOINS COALITION OF
ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT IN PENNSYLVANIA
BUDGET PROPOSAL CONTINUES PROGRESS ON EDUCATION FUNDING REFORM
February 9, 2010 -- The
Pennsylvania School
Funding Campaign (PSFC) today applauded Governor Edward G. Rendell’s
proposed $354 million increase in basic education funding in his 2010-11 budget.
The Law Center is a member of the Campaign Steering Committee, and is
represented in that effort by attorney Michael Churchill.
The proposal would keep Pennsylvania headed in the right direction toward eliminating the gap in funding between the amount of money spent on public education in Pennsylvania’s school districts and the amount of funding a PA General Assembly-commissioned “Costing-Out Study” determined was necessary to educate all Pennsylvania students to reach state standards.
Rendell’s proposal amounts to the third-year commitment of a six-year phase-in of the needed funding increase.
Ron Cowell, president of The Education Policy and Leadership Center and PSFC spokesperson, offered. “The Governor and General Assembly took historic action in 2008 to put the state back on track toward a fair, equitable, and rational school funding system for the first time in two decades.”
Noting that Pennsylvania – following strong investments in education -- was the only state in the nation to show significant improvement in reading and math in every grade tested, Rendell stressed, “We have invested in our children and they have rewarded us with rising achievement levels that are the envy of the nation.”
“Pennsylvania recognizes that increased funding is a key driver of economic development, Rendell said. “It produces young people better able to take their place as productive members of society.”
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHING CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES THEIR GRADES FOR THE NEW PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL DISTRICT TEACHER CONTRACT
January 26, 2010 - The Law Center’s Michael Churchill joined other members of the Effective Teaching Campaign, including students, parents, teachers and advocates in rating the School District’s new teacher contract in terms of the benefit to students. The group noted progress on three fronts, but saw little to address the crippling teacher turnover rates at some neighborhood schools. "This contract is the best we have seen in many years from the perspective of improving teacher quality for all students," said Churchill.
Gathered in front of the School District Building for a press conference, the ETC issued the following letter grades on 4 key issues:
1. Site Selection: B+
“Eight months ago we came together to identify the most important things the contract could do to
move reform forward in neighborhood schools. Today, we are here to hand out that Report Card,”
said Good Schools advocate Jon Cetel. “We look forward now to working with the District and the
PFT to monitor implementation and to find ways to get and keep teachers at hard-to-staff schools.”
The Effective Teaching Campaign rewarded improvements made to Site Selection with a “B+.”
“Allowing school communities to help select their teachers is important for effective teaching,” said William Browning, a parent and grandparent of District students. The practice is now required, for the first time, for all teachers in 90 Schools, with leadership teams of parents and teachers being developed to improve the selection process.
The contract does not include students in the selection process, however, which kept it from earning a higher mark. “Excluding students from Site Selection at the high school level makes it hard for the
right teachers to be in the right schools,” explained Shania Morris, a student at Samuel B. Huey
School. “The union and District missed a critical opportunity to hear the student voice in this process.”
Effective Teaching gave its lowest grade, a “D,” to the contract’s omission of effective incentives to make low-performing schools more attractive places to work. “Now that we've opened the door for so many schools for site selection, we're looking forward to working with the District and the union to create some incentives that will really draw and retain teachers at hard-to-staff schools,” says Brian
Armstead, Director of Civic Engagement at the Philadelphia Education Fund.
The Effective Teaching Campaign (phillyTQE.org) is 25 organizations and individuals who believe in the power of education to change lives. The Campaign was formed to address the urgent need for effective teachers and stable staffing patterns in all Philadelphia schools. They implore District, civic, business leaders, parents, students and all community residents to add their voices, to make Philadelphia a city where education comes first and high-quality teaching and learning and effective school leadership is expected and supported.
November 2009 --
The Law Center's Michael Churchill is representing United We Stand Lebanon, a group of parents challenging the Lebanon School District's truancy policy. The parents, all whom are racial or ethnic minorities, criticize the district's policy of imposing extremely high fees when their children are late for or absent from school. They allege that the fines set by the District exceed the $300 per citation state limit. In some cases parents have accrued fines in excess of $10,000; other parents have been imprisoned for failure to pay, and their children sent to foster care. Attorney Michael Churchill remarked that the current policy does not benefit a family if the parent is going to prison for the child's absenteeism.
The group has also highlighted the fact that the school district fails to notify parents when a child is absent from school. The Pennsylvania Department of Education's "Truancy Elimination Plan" requires school districts to contact parents in the event of a child's absence and address absentee problems. Lebanon School District is the only district in the state that has not written or implemented a proper truancy policy. Mr. Churchill said, "We should be developing ways to alleviate the problem (of truancy) rather than levying excessive fines to threaten people. That just doesn't work."
October 14, 2009 -- The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia submitted comments to the Pennsylvania IRRC (Independent Regulatory Review Commission) regarding their review of the state Board of Education's new testing scheme that will change high school graduation requirements. The IRRC, whose mission is to review PA state agency regulations and make sure they are in line with existing legislation and the public interest, maintains files of such comments received during the public comment period of review. The new set of assessments, which received final approval by the IRRC on October 22, does away with the currently used 11th grade PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) test, and instead requires students to pass Keystone Exams in 10 subject areas, withholding diplomas from students who do not pass exams in at least 6 of these areas.
While the Law Center recognizes the State Board of Education's goal of improving student achievement and increasing the value of a PA high school diploma,
the Law Center expressed concern in its comments that these new assessments will disproportionately deny diplomas to minority and low-income students, as well as magnify educational roadblocks for students with disabilities and students whose first language is not English. Citing its own research and that of the school board,
the Law Center found that recent PSSAs show a failure on the part of many districts to educate their students to state standards, and a concentration of such failures in economically disadvantaged districts. State expenditures for the new testing scheme are expected to top $201 million, further diverting much-needed funding from school districts that can afford it the least.
the Law Center also noted an increase in drop-out rates among other states that had implemented exit exams for high school seniors.
In light of its findings, the Law Center recommended that the IRRC not approve this regulation, or at least that it exempt districts with high rates of failure from using passage of the Keystone Exams as a requirement for graduation. Although the IRRC approved the regulation, the state Legislature has the means to block the Keystone graduation tests by way of blocking budget money for it annually, passing legislation to ban the exams, or a joint Senate and House resolution against the exams.
THE LAW CENTER CONTRIBUTES TO A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON
THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT PAYS OFF FOR EDUCATION FUNDING IN PENNSYLVANIA
On July 8, 2008 Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed into law the 2008-2009
state budget, approving a $9.6 billion education budget and the first state
funding formula in over two decades. This represents a $275 million increase
over last year's budget for basic education funding - the largest annual
increase in decades.
This historic commitment was achieved through strong leadership by Governor
Rendell and a united advocacy community, including parents, teachers,
administrators and school boards working together in the Pennsylvania School
Funding Campaign. The unprecedented lobbying of Philadelphia Mayor Michael
Nutter and mayors from around the state stressing the importance of a strong
educational system for economic development in their communities was another
important factor.
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia hailed the state education budget
as an historic breakthrough which will benefit school children in predominately
urban and rural poor school districts across the state, including Philadelphia.
Law Center attorney Michael Churchill, who represents the organization on the
steering committee of the PA School Funding Campaign, stated:
"With passage of this year's budget, the Pennsylvania legislature has committed
itself to reducing the inequality between school districts over the next five
years. It has set adequacy targets based on last year's Costing Out Study which
starts from the needs of each district to enable its students to meet state
standards. This is unprecedented in Pennsylvania. While it will take a lot of
legislative will power to increase state appropriations $470 million a year to
meet those targets, the General Assembly has recognized the importance of
helping underfunded school districts meet their students' needs by acknowledging
that the state should increase its support by that amount to districts."
Districts like Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Upper Darby and William Penn,
where taxpayer burdens are high but school resources low, will receive
substantial increases in funding to strengthen their instructional programs.
All but 47 of the 501 school districts will receive increases under the targets
incorporated into the state code, if the General Assembly provides the funding
which it has now recognized as the appropriate goal. Increasing the level of
state support will reduce the burden on local taxpayers in those communities.
Churchill stated, "It has been 18 years since Pennsylvania last adopted a
formula which takes into account the needs of districts by counting students and
this is the first formula in the state's history which attempts to measure what
additional funding is needed to meet state proficiency standards. Instead of
being one of only two states without any formula, Pennsylvania is moving into
the leading tier of states with a formula based on students' needs and
districts' financial capacity."
Read more about the Campaign
On June 17, 2008 the Law Center released its annual report analyzing school funding gaps in
Pennsylvania. State data for 2006-07 reveals that the gaps between the highest and lowest
spending districts continued to grow over those seen in 2005-06. For Philadelphia the gap in
funds available to it compared with neighboring school districts also increased, from $2,378
per student to nearly $2,928 per student because of the cost cutting by Philadelphia to
prevent a deficit. These increases are important because the Costing Out Study
commissioned by the General Assembly based its report on the 2005-06 figures. These
numbers show that the large shortfalls shown by that report have not abated.
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia has calculated the gaps between the average
amount spent by the top 20% of the school districts (100 districts) and the rest of the
districts, which is the standard adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court. In 2007, ten
districts had gaps greater than $6,000 per student, 331 districts (66 percent) had gaps of
$3,000 per student and 210 districts (42 percent) had gaps in excess of $4,000 per student. A
$4,000 gap in a class of 25 children is $100,000. The gap with the median spending school
district is down slightly from $3,843 to $3,746.
Cities with wide gaps, all greater than Philadelphia's, are: Reading $6,154; Allentown
$5,998; Altoona $5,176; Scranton $4,704; Erie $4,034; York $4,033; and Wilkes Barre
$3,987. Philadelphia's gap is $3,475, an increase of $232 from last year.
Although conducted on a different basis, the Law Center Gap Analysis produces results
broadly similar to those of the state's Costing Out Study released last November which can
be found via the PDE home page:
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pde_internet/site/default.asp?g=0
See below for more information about the Law Center's work as a part of the Pennsylvania
School Funding Campaign ( www.paschoolfunding.org ) to support endorsement of the
study's recommendations.
Click here to see the full list of per student expenditure and funding gap, by district.
Click here to read the full text of the Law Center's report
See below to read the reports from previous years
On April 24, 2008, Mr. Churchill participated in a panel discussion entitled
"All Children Left Behind" at the Philadelphia Bar Association's Minority
Attorney Conference. The other panelists were Donna Cooper, PA Secretary of
Education, and Sandra Dungee-Glenn of the Philadelphia Reform Commission. Mr.
Churchill's portion of the presentation was entitled "Pennsylvania's
Unequal School Finance System: It Can Be Changed." Click here to view the
powerpoint presentation that accompanied his speech.
MOMENTUM BUILDS AS STATEWIDE COALITION LAUNCHES PA SCHOOL FUNDING CAMPAIGN
In an unprecedented display of unity, organizations around the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania have joined to form a powerful and growing coalition calling for
legislation to increase and equalize state spending for public education.
The Law Center's Michael Churchill serves as a member of the management
committee of the coalition which also includes the Education Policy Leadership
Center, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, The Pennsylvania League of Urban
Schools, The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, The
Pennsylvania PTA, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, The Pennsylvania
Association of School Administrators and other Harrisburg-based organizations.
The Coalition began to gather force in late 2007 when the Pennsylvania
Department of Education released a statewide costing-out study to determine "the
basic cost per pupil to provide an education that will permit students to meet
the state's academic standards and assessments." See the article below for more
information about the Costing Out study.
After meeting with the state's Secretary of Education in late 2007, the
Coalition developed proposed legislation that will create a more equitable
funding formula for the future, beginning with a substantial down payment this
year. The proposal calls for an immediate state investment of $1 billion as a
first step towards reaching full adequacy.
The Coalition will announce its Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign at a press
conference in Harrisburg on January 23, 2008. "We're telling the governor and
legislature, we want you to start putting in place a system that everybody will
see will get to a long-term solution. The inequities and disparities are there
and real," said Churchill in a recent interview about the study with the
Philadelphia Public School Notebook - an independent education newsletter.
For all the most current information about the Pennsylvania School Funding
Campaign, including the proposal, full list of coalition members, and updates
from the press conference, visit: www.paschoolfunding.org or click on the
image below.
"COSTING-OUT" STUDY RELEASED: ADEQUATE EDUCATION IN PA
WILL COST AN ADDITIONAL $4.6 BILLION
The 2006-07 Pennsylvania state budget appropriated funding for a statewide
costing-out study to determine "the basic cost per pupil to provide an education
that will permit students to meet the state's academic standards and
assessments," taking into account both the adequacy and equity of state and
local funding.
The highly anticipated report, released on November 14, 2007, called
for a $4.6 billion increase in yearly spending to enable districts to meet the
2014 state standards. This amount represents a 26.8% increase over current
spending levels. Additionally the study showed that per-pupil spending in
Pennsylvania averaged $9,512 in 2005-2006, when it should have been $12,057.
The Law Center is working to assemble leaders and advocates from Pennsylvania's
501 school districts to endorse the study and generate the support among state
legislators necessary to make the recommendations a reality. We have issued a
call to all the state's districts to sign a Statement calling for
legislative implementation of the Report and pledging to work together for a
fair and equitable educational system. This effort is a logical follow up to
our drafting of the Successful Schools Bill of 2007 for Representatives Micozzie
and Manderino which called for $3.2 billion in new investment. (See "New State
Funding Formula Proposed" below for more information about the Successful
Schools Bill of 2007.)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE STATEMENT
Email schoolfunding@philaedfund.org to add your support to this effort TODAY!
Click here to read the full text of the Costing-Out study
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT FUNDING GAPS 2005-06
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia released a report June 21st disclosing that state funding for school districts in Pennsylvania reached an historic new low as a proportion of the total cost of funding schools. As a result, gaps between what the top 20 percent of the state's school districts were able to spend per student and what the rest of the school districts spent on their students widened. The gap between spending by the Philadelphia school district and other schools in its region also increased.
The report analyzes data released last week by the Pennsylvania Department of Education on expenditures and revenues of school districts in 2005-06.
"This report shows an overwhelming majority of the state's school districts and children need a new education funding formula which will have the state provide a fairer share of the cost of education. Districts, parents, and business all around the state should make common cause to demand Harrisburg fix this broken system, so that all children have an opportunity to meet state and No Child Left Behind standards, not just schools in wealthy communities," said Michael Churchill, who prepared the report for the Law Center.
For a complete copy of the report, click here.
For Alphabetical Listing of School Funding List, click here.
NEW STATE EDUCATION FUNDING FORMULA PROPOSED
Twenty-three state representatives from around the state and both parties introduced House Bill 1544, the Successful Schools Act of 2007, in June which would create a new state funding formula which would provide all school districts with the funds necessary to meet the state's 2011 PSSA standards. Prime Sponsors are Reps. Nicholas Micozzie and Kathy Manderino.
The Successful Schools Bill guarantees sufficient state funding to every school district so that with an equitable local tax rate it has the same resources and can educate its students to the same level of success as the 49 high performing districts which are currently meeting the state's 2011 PSSA standards in reading and math for all demographic groups.
The Bill, drafted with the assistance of the Law Center, is designed to build on what it actually costs to successfully educate students in Pennsylvania today. It is designed to meet the legislature’s constitutional responsibility "to provide a thorough and efficient system of public education" by ending the plight of school districts unable to provide an adequate education simply because of a small local tax base insufficient to raise the necessary funds. It will narrow the huge disparity between the education resources available to our sons and daughters in rich and poor districts in Pennsylvania, a disparity greater than in all but seven other states.
The Bill increases state expenditures by $3.4 billion or 20 percent. $3.205 billion is for new educational spending and $167 million goes to districts with high tax effort otherwise without increased funding. In order for districts to absorb this increase and use it wisely the Bill phases the increase in over three years. It holds districts accountable to use the increased revenue for practices that have demonstrated success in improving student achievement such as reducing class size, increasing pre-K, and improved teacher training.
For a complete description of the bill, click here.
For a list of much additional funds each district would receive, click here.
For a copy of HB 1544, click here.
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT FUNDING GAPS 2004-05
Pennsylvania continues to have one of the most unequal education funding systems in the
country.
An analysis of of the most recent school district spending in Pennsylvania
reveals the continuing extensive gaps between the average per student spending
by the top 20 percent of Pennsylvania's districts and the per student amounts
available in all of the other districts. In 2004-05 the median gap between a
district's expenditures and that of the top 20% was $3,109. This is an
improvement over the median gap of $3,660 the year before.
The distribution of the gaps in 2004-05 was:
76% of the districts had gaps greater than $2,000 with the average for the top 20%.
54% of the districts had gaps greater than $3,000.
26% of the districts had gaps between $4,000 and $5,721.
In the 268 districts with a $3,000 gap, each class of 25 would have $75,000 less
to spend than a typical class in the state's wealthier districts, which would be
available to reduce class size, provide advanced placement classes, increase
tutoring and extended day programs, provide music, art and full day kindergarten
and other programs with proven track records.
The analysis also shows that many of the poorer districts with a high gap are taxing their citizens
at a relatively high tax rate. The median tax rate in 2004-05 was 20.0 equalized mills.
Although the number of districts with gaps of $2,000 to $3,000 declined very little from 2003-04
to 2004-05, there was a very substantial decrease in the number of districts with gaps over
,000, from 200 districts to 130 districts. This was a reflection of the increase in the foundation
amounts included in the state budget for that year.
For an alphabetical listing of school district gaps and tax rates by county, click here.
For a listing of school district gaps and tax rates by size of the gaps, click here.
PHILADELPHIA'S GAPS
In Philadelphia, the School District spends $2,215 less per student than the average
suburban school, and six districts are spending over $5,000 more per student than Philadelphia.
The gap with the 20 percent high spending schools in the state was $2,709 per student or $572
million for the entire district each year. By the end of 12 years of schooling the average student
in the high spending districts receives $32,000 more in education spending than Philadelphia
teens--the equivalent of three years of schooling.
Because of its budget constraints the Philadelphia School District this year has reversed
its effort to lower class size in elementary school grades and class sizes are increasing back to 30- the highest in the state.
The Law Center has issued an eleven-point paper outlining the need for State Wide
Education Funding Reform in order to provide Equal Educational Opportunity in Philadelphia
and other Districts around the state. To see the paper, click here.
To see a breakdown of how many additional dollars each individual school in
Philadelphia would receive if Philadelphia were funded as the top 100 districts are, click here.
LAW CENTER URGES GREATER CITY AND STATE FUNDING
IN TESTIMONY ON BUDGET CUTS TO SRC AND CITY EDUCATION TASKFORCE
Michael Churchill testified in November that the School District remains inadequately funded for
the tasks confronting it. Balancing the budget by cuts alone will prevent accomplishing the goals
of class size reduction and improved student achievement. The Law Center called upon the
District and City to: 1) document the costs of reducing class size and other educational
improvements necessary to bring its students to meeting state standards and federal No Child
Left Behind requirements; and 2) joining with other underfunded districts around the state rather
than seeking additional funding for the District by itself. To read the testimony before the
Educational Taskforce on Nov. 20, 2006 click here. To read the testimony before the SRC on
Nov. 10, 2006 click here.
STATEWIDE COALITION TO CLOSE THE GAP
A Statewide Coalition to Close the Gap was formed with Law Center initiative to urge
candidates for the General Assembly, both incumbents and challengers, to place full funding for
schools at the top of their priority and to sponsor legislation like the Micozzie Successful Schools
Bill which will assure adequate funding for all districts.
For copies of the letters sent in May and August detailing why the state must provide full
funding for all schools, click here. More than 30 candidates from both parties signed the
commitment.
Signatories to the Coalition letter are Joseph F. Bard, Pennsylvania Association of Rural and
Small Schools; Linda Croushore, Mon Valley Education Consortium; Gary Harke, Pennsylvania
Council of Churches; Liz Healey, former Chairperson Pittsburgh School Board, PaTASH; Bonita
Hoke, Pennsylvania League of Women Voters; Timothy W. Potts, Carlisle Area School
Board Member, Pennsylvania School Reform Network, 1997-2004; Rev. Robert P.
Shine, President, Statewide Coalition of BlackClergy; Shelly D. Yanoff,
Philadelphia Citizens for Children & Youth; and Cheryl Zaleski, Coatsville
Taxpayers Alliance along with Michael Churchill and Thomas K. Gilhool from the Law Center.
PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION ADVOCATES IMPROVED EDUCATIONAL
FUNDING
At the urging of PILCOP and the Education Law Center, the Philadelphia Bar
Association has started an initiative to improve the equality of educational
funding in Pennsylvania. In the fall of 2005 the Delivery of Legal Services Committee
established the Public Education Reform Subcommittee. The first fruit of the
subcommittee was a resolution detailing the problems of the state's educational
funding. The resolution requests the state legislature to enact a system of
educational funding consistent with the state Constitution by ending the gross
disparities which currently exist in educational opportunities depending on
where in Pennsylvania a student lives. On January 26, 2006 the Board of
Governors unanimously approved the resolution.
Read the Philadelphia Bar Association resolution here.
On October 16, 2006 the Association conducted a forum entitled "How Pennsylvnai School
Funding Jeopardizes Philadelphia's Future (And What Can You Do About it)" with
Congressman Chaka Fattah, CEO Paul Vallas, and activist Helen Gym. For a report on the
conference from the Philadelphia Tribune, click here and the Bar Reporter, click here.
GRANT FROM INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY AND OPPORTUNITY
The Law Center has received a $100,000 grant from the Institute to research the history of state
constitutional education clauses and to conduct a conference on the subject in October 2007.
Despite the fact that the US Supreme Court in 1971 stated that education is not a fundamental
right protected by the U.S. Constitution, preliminary research shows that the United States
required as a condition of admission for every state after the initial 13 that it's constitution
provide for free public education.
PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The Law Center's current work to improve the educational opportunities of minority children in
Philadelphia began in 1991 when it was asked by a number of community groups to intervene on
their behalf in the city's long running school desegregation lawsuit. As a consequence of the
intervention and the orders of Judge Doris Smith-Ribner, the Philadelphia School District
established full day kindergarten, began smaller class sizes in elementary grades, instituted a
strengthened curriculum and improved instructional practices, and took steps to equalize teacher
availability. The Philadelphia school desegregation case is nearly unique among school
desegregation cases in its focus on closing the academic gap between minority and white
students, as well as the resource gap. Periodically the Law Center issues analysis of district data
to evaluate the progress in creating a more equal and integrated School District.
The Law Center, with the City and the School District filed an educational adequacy case, based
on the Pennsylvania Constitutional provision requiring the General Assembly "establish and
maintain a thorough and efficient system of public education." The case, Marrero v.
Commonwealth, was patterned after the successful New Jersey litigation based on the exact
same constitutional provision. As part of the case the Law Center filed a brief reviewing the
history of education clauses in the state's constitutions. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in
contrast to the courts faced with similar suits in every other state with similar provisions, refused
to allow state judicial review of the legislature's non-compliance. For a copy of the Pa.Supreme
Court opinion click here. To read the Law Center's constitutional history, click here.
As a consequence, the Law Center in 1998 filed Powell v. Ridge in federal court as an
innovative challenge under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to obtain federal review of the state's
unequal funding. The case alleged that the way in which public schools are funded discriminates
against predominantly minority school districts. To read the Complaint, click here. Although the
Third Circuit upheld the Complaint, subsequent changes by the Supreme Court in federal law
removed any right to sue to prevent such disparities.
Although the litigation was ultimately unsuccessful, the Law Center's efforts, along with its
coalition partners, focused public attention on the gap in education funding which needs to be
legitimately addressed. The Law Center has worked to make the case for reform in several state
legislative hearings and in testimony before City Council.
Other efforts to improve educational opportunities for Philadelphia students included an attempt
to increase college opportunities by filing a suit to enforce a city ordinance and agreement with
the University of Pennsylvania that required the university to award 125 full tuition scholarships
annually. Although the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court narrowly held the provision
unenforceable, the University significantly increased its scholarships to Philadelphia students.
