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 districts.
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+
2. Incentives for Equity: D
3. Standards and Evaluations: A-
4. Professional Development: 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.
TRUANCY FINES PLACE EXCESSIVE
BURDEN ON FAMILIES IN LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA
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."
LAW CENTER SUBMITS COMMENTS TO IRRC ABOUT HIGH STAKES
TESTING PROPOSED FOR PENNSYLVANIA
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.
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
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
THE LAW CENTER CONTRIBUTES TO A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON
THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
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
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
LARGE STATE EDUCATION FUNDING GAPS CONTINUE IN 2006-2007
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
THE LAW CENTER'S MICHAEL CHURCHILL GIVES PRESENTATION ON EDUCATION FINANCE AT
THE 20TH ANNUAL PBA MINORITY ATTORNEY CONFERENCE
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.
