Pa. school funding lawsuit verdict is correct. But the fight for equity isn’t over.

On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge ruled that the state’s system for funding education is unconstitutional, arguing that there are “manifest deficiencies” between low- and high-wealth districts. The decision is correct and is a needed step in the journey toward educational justice in the state of Pennsylvania.

The injustice of the system as it currently stands is easy to understand. In Pennsylvania, a school district’s budget is financed largely by the property taxes of the houses within that district. The more valuable the homes, the higher the taxes, the larger the school budget, and the more resources available per student.

Imagine two first graders about to enter their respective elementary schools, Student A and Student B. The first student lives in a poor community, most likely urban or rural. Their school district’s budget is low due to the low value of homes, which generate relatively little income from property taxes. Student A, due to the location of their home, will be educated in an underresourced school. Student B, on the other hand, lives in a wealthy suburban community with valuable homes, correspondingly higher tax bases, and better-funded schools. Student B, due to the location of their home, will be educated in a school with ample resources, putting them on a path to any number of opportunities and careers.

In no universe can the above scenario, wherein two children are provided radically different educational opportunities simply based upon where they happen to live, be deemed just; it is this funding system that has been found unconstitutional.

There is, however, one aspect of the opinion written by Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer that is false.

The opinion states that there is “no rational basis” for these disparities. This is not true. There is a rational basis for a two-tiered education system that provides for the “haves” while punishing the “have-nots”— systemic white supremacy in the form of residential segregation.

In case it isn’t obvious, a disproportionate amount of children who live in underresourced school districts are Black and brown, so Pennsylvania’s inequitable school funding system is about race, not just money.

“Pennsylvania’s inequitable school funding system is about race, not just money.”

This type of residential segregation doesn’t happen by chance. Neighborhood redlining and racist mortgage lending practices have resulted in generations of Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities being denied access to homeownership, one of the primary sources of intergenerational wealth in the United States. As a result, a disproportionate number of communities of color bear the brunt of Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional education system.

At its core, the state’s system for funding education is based upon a rationale that is fundamentally racist and classist.

Now that the system has been found unconstitutional, what happens next will determine whether or not true change will take place. Will formulas be rewritten in such a way that the wealthy and powerful districts see less funding, so poor districts see more?

» READ MORE: Pa. schools are broken. The outcome of the funding lawsuit won’t change that.

The track record says no. In states where funding formulas have been found unconstitutional, many have failed to overcome the outcries of protest coming from wealthy enclaves who, while they may grudgingly shoulder tax burdens for their own kids, balk at tax burdens when dollars are distributed elsewhere.

One need only look across the Delaware River to neighboring New Jersey, whose educational funding formula was found to be unconstitutional in 1990. In the wake of the decision, then-Gov. Jim Florio proposed the Quality Education Act, which would have resulted in nearly $3 billion in new taxes and a reduction in state education funding for wealthy districts. Political retribution was swift, and Florio lost reelection in 1993.

Political retribution will be swift in Pennsylvania as well. Advocates for educational justice cannot rely on the altruism of the wealthy and powerful who will assuredly attempt to block any policy reform that would create a more equitable education system.

The same coalitions that agitated for over a decade to highlight the obvious injustice of Pennsylvania’s education funding system should know that, despite Tuesday’s verdict, their fight is long from over. They will have to be just as vigilant and tireless to ensure a truly equitable funding formula is adopted. All children in Pennsylvania — not just those lucky enough to be born into the right zip code — should have access to high-quality education.

Zachary Wright is an assistant professor of practice at Relay Graduate School of Education, curriculum contributor to the Center for Black Educator Development, and the author of “Dismantling a Broken System: Actions to Bridge the Equity, Justice, and Opportunity Gap in American Education.”