Efforts to overturn Pa.’s landmark education funding lawsuit thwarted

The Commonwealth Court judge who found Pennsylvania’s school funding unconstitutional earlier this year has rejected an attempt by Republican lawmakers to overturn her ruling.

The Wednesday decision by Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer means it’s up to lawmakers to fix the state’s broken school funding system — unless they decide to appeal.

Republicans now have 30 days to do so.

In a statement, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said they were still reviewing the decision and “have yet to determine if an appeal is warranted.” But they said lawmakers have already begun reviewing “all aspects of our education system” and will continue to do so.

“Evolving and changing our education system to address the needs of students must be done holistically and should not, and will not, be accomplished solely through more state dollars,” they said.

A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.

But Gov. Josh Shapiro has said leaders have signaled to him that they don’t plan on appealing the landmark ruling, which found that Pennsylvania has been depriving school districts of adequate funding — particularly its poorest, which have been shortchanged compared to wealthier peers.

With a system that relies heavily on property taxes, Pennsylvania features some of the widest disparities in education funding in the country.

Those gaps were highlighted by the six school districts who sued the state along with parents and statewide groups, saying they didn’t have basic resources needed to educate students.

Republican legislative leaders defended the state against the suit and later filed the motion for post-trial relief, arguing Jubelirer had made errors in her ruling.

Among their objections: Cutler said Jubelirer erred in finding that the commonwealth violated the state constitution’s equal protection clause because children in poorer districts have greater needs that he said made them dissimilar to children in wealthier districts.

Jubelirer, however, said children in lower-wealth districts “have the same right or expectation to a thorough and efficient system of public education as those students who attend schools in a wealthier school district.”

The judge, in her decision, directed the respondents “with the challenge of delivering a system of public education that the Pennsylvania Constitution requires — one that provides for every student to receive a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.”

Shapiro has proposed additionaleducation funding in next year’s budget, with the promise of broader changes to the funding system the year after that. Advocates, however, say schools need more money now, and House Democrats have advanced a plan that would increase funding over Shapiro’s proposal.