in Pennsylvania say that Gov. Josh Shapiro's budget proposal falls short of the financial commitments that are needed to help the state's poorest school districts.
"This year’s proposed education budget does not do enough to meet the standard set by our state constitution and the urgency of this moment," the lawyers, who are from the Education Law Center, the Public Interest Law Center and O’Melveny & Myers LLP, said in a joint statement. "The moment calls for more."
A ruling last month in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court found that the state's roughly $34 billion school funding system violates the rights of students in the poorest school districts and directed Shapiro, lawmakers and the school districts that sued to develop a plan to fix it.Gov. Josh Shapiro is proposing a hefty an increase in aid to Pennsylvania’s schools in his first budget he's delivering to the Legislature.
Shapiro said Wednesday it should be viewed as a "two-step process" that includes the money he proposed in his new budget plan and then, next year, when he returns with his second budget plan.