Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled Tuesday, delivering a long-awaited ruling in a landmark lawsuit brought in 2014 by school districts, parents, and advocacy groups against the state.
In a 786-page decision, Judge Renee Cohn Jubilerer said that over the course of the more than three-month trial that ended a year ago, the petitioners had demonstrated “manifest deficiencies” between low- and high-wealth districts. She said there was “no rational basis” for the disparities, which derive from Pennsylvania’s heavy reliance on local property taxes to pay for public education.“The Court is in uncharted territory with this landmark case,” Jubilerer said.
ryanlcooper I think New Hampshire went thru something like this many years ago. With schools predominantly funded by prop tax and little to no state support to even things out, poorer districts suffered.