Pennsylvania
The public schools enroll 1,755,000 students: 69% White, 15% African American, 9% Latino, and 3% Asian, with 43% living in poverty, and 3% learning English. The State spends $13,445 per pupil. (Most recent NCES data)
STATE CONSTITUTION
“The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” Pa. Const. art. 3, § 14.
“No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.” Pa. Const. art. 3, § 15.
“[T]he General Assembly shall not pass any local or special law: 1. Regulating the affairs of counties, cities, townships, wards, boroughs or school districts.” Pa. Const. art. 3, § 32.
MAJOR CASES
In 1979, in Danson v. Casey, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that this case, alleging that the State school funding system violated the constitution’s education article because it allocated inadequate funds, was non-justiciable.
In 1998, in Pennsylvania Ass’n of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) v. Ridge, the trial court dismissed plaintiffs’ adequacy and equity claims as non-justiciable, and in Marrero v. Commonwealth, an appellate court held that the claims of inadequate funding and inadequate education were non-justiciable.
In 2017, in William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied the State’s motion to dismiss and remanded the case to the Commonwealth Court for a trial on plaintiffs’ claims of inadequate and inequitable educational opportunity and funding.
ELC and several Pennsylvania organizations that advocate for high-quality public education filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners’ claims under the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Education Clause and Equal Protection Clause.
As a remedy for the alleged constitutional violations, the William Penn lawsuit asks the courts to declare the current funding system unconstitutional and require the Commonwealth to establish adequate and equitable funding that enables school districts to provide all students the opportunity to meet state academic standards and prepare to participate in the economic, civic, and social activities of society.