EDUCATION FUNDING AND QUALITY
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.
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
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."
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
