Each month in 2025, we are highlighting an ELC-PA milestone or success as we mark our 50^th 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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Lindsay Wagner, [email protected], (215) 701-4264

Education Law Center-PA Statement on Senate Passage of Pennsylvania CROWN Act

Today, by an overwhelming, bipartisan, 44-3 vote, the Pennsylvania Senate approved the CROWN Act (HB 439), which protects Pennsylvanians against racial hair discrimination based on hair type, hair texture, or protective hairstyles like braids, twists, knots, and locs. Public school students are specifically protected by this law.

The Education Law Center-PA applauds the Pennsylvania Senate for passing this critical legislation that enacts statutory protections from this type of racial discrimination, and brings the Commonwealth into alignment with the growing majority of states to statutorily outlaw this type of discrimination.

“Passing the PA CROWN Act is reform that Black girls in Pennsylvania’s public schools have been demanding,” said ELC-PA Senior Attorney Paige Joki. “This is a critical improvement for equity in our schools. Students’ right to wear protective styles — such as braids, locs, and twists — and the right to learn without fear of stigmatization, reprisals, school exclusions, or other disciplinary measures will now be codified by Pennsylvania’s non-discrimination law, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA). This important legal shift helps safeguard students’ right to expression and helps ensure that students can learn without fear and that they can come to school as their full authentic selves. No child can learn in an environment that is teaching and enforcing discrimination.”

In the past several years, ELC-PA has had to challenge discriminatory school rules for banning hairstyles that aren’t “neat” or “well-groomed,” hair that is “colored or highlighted in any flamboyant colors,” and rules that prohibit the use of combs, headscarves, wave caps, or do-rags.

Students, families, and advocates in our communities have been powerful champions for needed changes in our schools. As detailed in ELC-PA’s first-of-its kind report, We Need Supportive Spaces that Celebrate Us: Black Girls Speak Out About Public Schools, racially discriminatory school rules that punish children for their hair textures and protective hairstyles have been an ever present part of many children’s educational experiences. This discrimination is illegal. ELC-PA invites community members to learn more directly from Black girls by reading our report, four-page companion guide, and one-pager.  Join us in the fight for equitable school rules by reviewing public school rules in your community and advocating for positive change.

This legislation, an amendment to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, now heads to the Governor’s desk.

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