Historic. Bipartisan. A game changer for Pennsylvania’s public school students.
For decades, hardly anyone could imagine using these words to describe how Pennsylvania funded our public schools. But, in 2024, Democrat and Republican legislators joined Gov. Josh Shapiro to finally address Pennsylvania’s staggering school funding inequities.
Just a year earlier, the Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s public school funding system was “clearly, palpably, and plainly violating the constitution.” Something had to be done.
The decisive, historic action lawmakers took last year was only the first step in a multiyear plan to ensure that every student in Pennsylvania has enough funding behind them to support a great public education.
In the simplest terms, policymakers created a new state funding program that has sent hundreds of millions in needed resources to Pennsylvania’s most underfunded school districts. The program sets funding level targets by looking at the most successful school districts in the state and what they were spending per student.
A key part of the Commonwealth Court’s 2023 decision held that an entire class of school districts has insufficient resources to spend what is needed to offer every student a high-quality public education, thus ensuring they can be successful. In other words, the court said that it isn’t fair — or constitutional — to have a school funding system that provides sufficient resources to some students and not others.
In FY 2024-25, the state budget dedicated $526 million to a pot of money directed to more than two-thirds of Pennsylvania school districts that fell short of the per-student funding level or were among the top 10% of schools with the highest tax burdens.
Seventy percent of lawmakers in the state House and Senate voted to support this approach in Act 55 last July. With such strong bipartisan and stakeholder support, it came as no surprise that Gov. Shapiro committed to staying the course in his proposed FY 2025-26 budget with an additional $526 million.
We can see progress beginning to take root. Consider the following numbers based on a PSEA analysis of how school districts are using adequacy and tax equity funds:
- Sixty-six school districts used the funds to hire teachers to lower class size in grades K-3.
- Seventy-five school districts invested in STEM programs, including hiring more STEM teachers.
- Forty-six school districts used the funds to maintain services for the physical and mental health of students, including maintaining school counselors, social workers, behavioral support staff, and psychologists.
- Sixty-seven districts maintained, expanded, or established programs for math and literacy coaching.
The Central Dauphin School District is using the money it receives from this program to establish a full-day kindergarten program.
The Panther Valley School District is dedicating the new funding to increase inclusion of students with special needs within the school community.
The Reading School District is investing to expand pre-kindergarten opportunities and to establish a career readiness program.
These investments are working. We can’t stop now. We are making real progress toward closing opportunity gaps for students in school districts across the commonwealth.
In the coming days (hopefully), the General Assembly will begin debating and negotiating the FY 2025-26 state budget.
Between now and then, it is crucial that we remind legislators how important it is to continue the investments that our public schools need to support student learning and ensure our public school funding system passes constitutional muster in the years to come.
There is no reason Pennsylvania should reverse course on a plan that is on track to finally make our public school funding system fair, equitable, and constitutional — once and for all.
There is no political, fiscal, or legal excuse to divert from the course elected officials bravely began to chart last year. Pennsylvania needs an adequate, equitable, constitutional system for funding public education.
Today, we are on the path to achieving this goal. For our students’ sake, let’s not deviate from it.
