PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The landmark Commonwealth Court decision declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional will stand. Legislative leaders are not appealing the case to the state Supreme Court.
Friday’s midnight deadline passed with no appeal by Republican legislative leaders. That means February’s decision by Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer that Pennsylvania failed to provide students in poorer districts with an effective education is final.
“By declining to appeal, state leaders have committed to fulfilling their constitutional obligation and to changing the life outcomes of generations of public school students,” said Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, which represented six school districts and several individuals in their long-running suit against the state.
Katrina Robson, one of the petitioner’s attorneys and a partner in the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, said now is the time for the legislature to provide equitable education funding.
“There is no excuse for any further delay,” said Robson.
The next state budget, though, is in legislative limbo over a partisan impasse over spending taxpayer money for students to go to private and religious schools.
Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg is a senior attorney with the Public Interest Law Center. He also represented the plaintiffs who sued the state.
“School vouchers will not, in any circumstance, move us a dollar closer to compliance with this decision,” he said.
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McInerney added that proposed private school vouchers siphon money off of public funds that are needed in schools across the commonwealth.
Robson says the state now must devise a system that provides enough money to districts with the highest needs.
“Ultimately, this is a judicially enforceable decision,” she said. “We are standing by and we are ready to go back to court as soon as we feel that state lawmakers are not responding to the judge’s order,” she said.
Attorneys for the petitioners discussed the developments Monday in a Zoom call with reporters.
“After completing a thorough review of the Commonwealth Court ruling on school funding, we have determined an appeal will not be undertaken,” Senate Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Majority Leader Joe Pittman said in a statement.
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“In order to evolve our approach to school funding and ensure fairness for our students, further modifications and an examination of ways to streamline services must be explored. Engaging in a holistic approach which finds an appropriate balance between addressing the needs of students and respecting the ability of taxpayers to pay the costs is vital,” Ward and Pittman added.
State Rep. Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) says the “endless litigation has invited people to believe that money alone will solve the challenges of our public education system.”
“The House Republican Caucus will continue to seek transformational change while we make results-oriented investments in our schools. Parents, families and students across Pennsylvania and, in particular, those that are trapped in the lowest performing schools deserve that change, which we believe includes new forms of school choice,” Cutler added.