Pennsylvania’s school funding system declared unconstitutional
On February 7, 2023, in a historic victory for students, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer ruled that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional and must be reformed.
In a 786-page decision, the court found that “All witnesses agree that every child can learn. It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”
To recap: Trial started Nov. 12, 2021. Witness testimony was completed on Feb. 22, 2022. On the first day, we heard opening statements in the case, where we previewed our case—that the state legislature’s school funding system violates Pennsylvania’s constitution—as well as the evidence and stories from across the state that will be part of our case. Witnesses for the petitioners began to take the stand on Nov. 15, 2021.
Petitioners called 29 witnesses over the course of nine weeks, completing our witness testimony on Jan. 26. Legislative respondents called 10 witnesses. Executive respondents called one. Petitioners brought one witness back to the stand for rebuttal testimony. On March 10, 2022, the four-month-long school funding trial concluded with closing arguments from the parties in the case.
Post-trial briefs on the legal issues in the case were filed in the months following the trial. Prior to the ruling, on July 26, 2022, the parties in the school funding lawsuit gathered for a final time in a Harrisburg courtroom for oral argument on the legal issues in the case.
Review what happened with our daily summaries and this compilation of links to those summaries of the testimony.
“When they’re in school, the children of Pennsylvania should have no doubt that we believe in their future, whether they live in a rich community or a poor one,” said Public Interest Law Center attorney Michael Churchill. “That is the promise of public education—a promise that has been ignored for decades in Pennsylvania. We will show at trial that the General Assembly has ensured that local wealth determines which students get the kind of quality education that prepares them to reach their full potential, and which students learn with outdated materials in overcrowded classrooms. All our kids deserve better.”
“For decades, the future of Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren has been predetermined by local wealth rather than our children’s potential,” said Education Law Center legal director Maura McInerney. “Our state lawmakers have left generations of students behind in unsafe schools, with outdated textbooks—deprived of the basic resources they need to learn. This trial will change that by requiring the legislature to equitably and adequately fund all of our schools to serve all our students. We will prove that the General Assembly created this problem and is mandated by our state constitution to fix it.”