Public News Source quotes ELC Legal Fellow Sean McGrath on the availability of early intervention services in the state of Pennsylvania. Read more here.
Author: elcadmin
Gap between rich and poor Pa. school districts has grown, lawsuit says
“Not only has Pennsylvania’s new school-funding formula failed to remedy disparities between wealthy and poor public school districts, the spending gap between such districts has grown, according to a filing Friday by plaintiffs in a landmark funding lawsuit,” Maddie Hanna of Philly.com writes, on ELC’s fair funding suit. Read more here.
Overcoming ‘a bureaucratic demolition of human rights,’ an intellectually disabled woman finds son taken at birth
The Inquirer reports on education advocate Jean Searle’s success in reuniting with her son, who had been taken from her while she was institutionalized many years prior. The article quotes ELC Legal Director Maura McInerney, who helped Searle reunite with her child. Read more here.
Letters to the Editor: Garnet Valley not alone in budget blues
ELC Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr writes a letter to the editor in the Delco Times addressing the pervasive challenges underfunded school districts have in meeting the needs of special education students. Read more here.
Education and conditions in juvenile detention remain poor, advocates say
WHYY reports on poor conditions in Philadelphia-area juvenile detention centers, quoting ELC Legal Director Maura McInerney. Read more here.
Landmark Pa. school-funding suit clears legal hurdle
The Inquirer reports on ELC’s fair funding lawsuit and its continued progress toward trial. Read more here.
Suburban schools’ residency enforcement mostly affects kids of color
WHYY reports on residency enforcement policies that disproportionately affect students of color, quoting ELC Legal Director Maura McInerney. Read more here.
Child Advocates Seek More Special Ed Funding
The Sanatoga Post writes about the two dozen advocacy organizations that worked together to pressure Pennsylvania lawmakers to increase the money available for special education purposes. The article quotes ELC Attorney Reynelle Brown Staley. Read here.
Commonwealth Court hears arguments in school funding case
The Notebook reports on ELC’s fair funding case and its progress toward trial, quoting ELC Legal Director Maura McInerney. Read more here.
Why the debate about school safety and increased security may exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline
Public Source quotes ELC Attorney Cheryl Kleiman on whether or not arming school personnel increases school safety. Read more.
Meet the chiefs: The women leading Philly’s public interest law organizations
ELC Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr is featured in Generocity‘s article on women leading public interest law organizations in Philadelphia. Read more here.
Trump’s proposal to arm teachers would face legal, union opposition in Pennsylvania
Triblive quotes ELC Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr on the legal implications in Pennsylvania of President Trump’s proposal to train and arm teachers with firearms. Read more.
Gov. Wolf emphasizes education, but scales back funding ambitions during final first term budget address
WHYY quotes ELC Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr on Governor Wolf’s proposed budget. “Our children need more,” Klehr writes. Read more here.
Another Obama-era initiative under attack: Equity in school discipline
ELC Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr writes about the bias in school discipline against students of color and argues that school suspensions in under-resourced schools often do more harm than good. Read more here.
Low-Income Black and Latino Students Hit Hardest in Public Schools
Newsweek article cites ELC report highlighting how state underfunding of schools deepens inequity. Read more here.
She says her granddaughter’s acceptance to Philly charter was rescinded because of her special-education status
The Inquirer reports on an Education Law Center complaint about a child who had her enrollment to a charter school, Franklin Towne Charter High School, rescinded after the school found out she had an IEP and required emotional support services. Read more.
In New School Funding Lawsuit Filing, Gov. Wolf Says More Funds Are Needed
In our ongoing legal challenge to the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s school funding system, we filed a brief in Commonwealth Court in July, rebutting Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati’s claim that the adoption of a school funding formula in 2016 renders the case moot. In briefs filed August 3, Gov. Tom Wolf also rejected the mootness claim, saying that funding issues persist, while Sen. Scarnati While Sen. Scarnati and Rep. Michael Turzai continue to seek dismissal based on mootness, they fail to dispute in any way the growing disparities between high-wealth and low-wealth districts. Read more in this August 7, 2018, News Release.
Opposition Brief to Mootness Application Filed in School Funding Case
Funding gaps between high-wealth and low-wealth districts are growing, and state funding for classroom expenses has declined over four years. Those are key points in our latest brief in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court case filed by parents, school districts, and two statewide associations challenging Pennsylvania’s broken school funding system. In May, the Court directed the parties to address the issue of whether the state’s adoption of an education funding formula in 2016 renders the case moot. Our brief, filed July 6, 2018, refutes that argument made by respondent Senator Scarnati. Affidavits detail the difficult conditions in our petitioners’ school districts, making clear that the state’s funding system has not been fixed. There’s more information in the News Release, and you can read the case documents here.
Education Law Center Applauds Change in Philadelphia’s Student Discipline Policy
ELC has long advocated for alternatives to out-of-school suspensions of young children; they are not age-appropriate and do not make schools safer. Suspensions of kindergartners were banned in Philadelphia in 2016. The District’s School Reform Commission in June 2018 formally changed the School District’s student conduct and discipline policy, extending the existing ban on out-of-school suspensions to cover grades 1 and 2. This means that students in those grades cannot be suspended unless it is shown that their behavior resulted in serious bodily injury. Read our release here.
Pennsylvania’s New Budget: For Education, Barely a Start
Pennsylvania has an on-time budget for 2018-19, approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Wolf on June 22. It provides modest but needed new funding for Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren. While the additional dollars for schools help, this budget increase provides only a small fraction of what is needed for an adequately and equitably funded statewide public education system. The heavy lifting is still needed as urgently as ever to address shortfalls in school funding across the state. Read more here.