Each month in 2025, we are highlighting an ELC-PA milestone or success as we mark our 50th anniversary. Our timeline of ELC-PA milestones is here.
On February 7, 2023, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer issued a historic ruling that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional. The court recognized that our public schools require adequate funding to meet our constitution’s mandate, and the ruling directed the legislature to develop and implement a plan for bringing the state’s school funding system into constitutional compliance. This new school funding system must ensure that all students have the opportunity to access a “comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education” – the standard set by the court.
The case, William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al., was filed more than a decade ago, in 2014, by the Education Law Center-PA, the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), and the private law firm O’Melveny on behalf of parents, school districts, and two statewide organizations. The respondents included state legislative leaders, the Governor, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and state School Board, all of whom play a role in developing our school funding system. After a nearly four-month trial in the Commonwealth Court in 2021 and 2022 and post-trial proceedings, the court’s 2023 decision held for the first time that education is a fundamental right under Pennsylvania’s constitution and that the current funding system violates both the education clause and equal protection provision of our state constitution.
At trial, ELC-PA and our co-counsel presented compelling evidence that many school districts lack critical resources that include not only textbooks and desks, but also modern facilities, smaller class sizes, early childhood programs, and supports for students who need extra help. The court rejected the argument that the system was adequately funded or that money doesn’t matter. Relying on the history and clear language of the Education Clause, the court concluded that our state constitution requires that all students must have access to the resources they need to succeed “academically, socially, and civically,” noting that what students need to be academically successful in the 21st century goes beyond a desk, chair, pen, paper and textbooks. In order to provide these fundamentals, funding is key. In fact, adequate funding is the first element of the system that the Court determined it must measure, holding that “in order to evaluate [the system’s] constitutionality” it needed to evaluate the system’s inputs, and made plain that “[t]he most obvious input is funding…”
The court directed the state’s legislative and executive branches to come up with a plan, alongside petitioners, to fix the broken system. Because the decision applies statewide, any remedy must benefit all students across Pennsylvania, not just those in the districts that brought the case.
After holding 11 public hearings around the state in fall 2023 to elicit testimony from stakeholders and experts, the state’s Basic Education Funding Commission issued a majority report on Jan. 11, 2024. It found that Pennsylvania school districts are underfunded by billions and recommended a seven-year plan for the state to close this adequacy funding gap.
See an interactive map of Pennsylvania school districts and their school funding “adequacy gaps.”
In the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets, funding the known $4.8B adequacy gap was front and center in lawmakers’ minds, and our advocacy was central to that continued pressure. In two years, the legislature has invested $1 billion towards closing this unconstitutional funding gap. With a remaining adequacy gap of $3.8 billion, continued bipartisan commitment from elected officials is critical to investing in public education. We must continue to keep up the pressure and momentum to zero out that gap.
This ruling in William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et al. is more than a courtroom victory: it’s a turning point. By declaring the public school funding system unconstitutional, the court has put the weight of reform squarely on lawmakers, urging them to provide additional funding to under-resourced districts and deliver on the promise of an equitable education for every child.
Read the decision in William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, et. al. here.
Read our press release following the ruling here.