PHILADELPHIA- Mayor Kenney and other City officials today praised the ruling by Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the ongoing lawsuit against state officials over the Commonwealth’s system of school funding.
Mayor Jim Kenney:
“Today’s landmark ruling from the Supreme Court is great news for our children, for this City, and for the Commonwealth as a whole. While we don’t expect the ruling to affect the funding situation in the short-term, we believe the Courts can now address the General Assembly’s obligation to provide the support and funding that the City’s and Commonwealth’s children need to succeed. We look forward to working with advocates in this case as it moves to trial. Every year in school shapes our students’ lives. We shouldn’t let another year go to waste.”
City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante:
“The Supreme Court’s decision recognizes that the Pennsylvania Constitution’s mandate for a ‘thorough and efficient system of public education’ has real meaning, and the General Assembly cannot decide for itself what that means. The Courts will now decide what that means. Indeed, the Supreme Court explicitly recognizes that the Legislature is faced with too many competing political interests to fairly assess its own constitutional responsibilities. That is the job of the Court, and we are extremely appreciative that this Supreme Court has recognized and accepted this responsibility.”
Chief Education Officer Otis Hackney:
“I expect a trial to prove what students and educators see every day: that school funding in Pennsylvania is inadequate and inequitable,” “Children across the state deserve fair access to a good education. This means having access to the arts and academic supports, sufficient staffing in schools, and ensuring that schools are safe and healthy spaces that support learning. And, as the Court recognized, access to a thorough and efficient education should not depend on your zip code. The Court is absolutely correct that we should not tolerate these kinds of disparities in educational resources across the Commonwealth. We implore legislators on both sides of the aisle to get to work now, and increase state aid to school districts that need it, be they rural, urban, or suburban.”
The lawsuit was filed in late 2014 by the Public Interest Law Center and the Education Law Center-PA on behalf of six school districts and seven parents, along with the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) and the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference. In February of 2017, the City of Philadelphia filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of the plaintiffs.
The petitioners had asked the high court to send the case to a full trial. The City’s amicus brief supported those arguments. It specifically pointed out that the General Assembly’s funding scheme barely addresses the wide funding disparities among school districts across the Commonwealth. It demonstrated that providing a basic education in Philadelphia is a far more expensive challenge because children in the city face profound challenges before they even arrive at school. The brief urged the Supreme Court to return the case to Commonwealth Court.