LWVPA Statement on Fair School Funding Decision

On Tuesday, Commonwealth Court President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer ruled that the Pennsylvania education funding formula is unconstitutional. In her nearly 800-page decision, Judge Cohn Jubelirer said that the state government failed to provide a “thorough and efficient” education to all Pennsylvanian children as required by the state Constitution.

Cohn Jubelirer has ordered the state government to draft a new education funding formula that will resolve the funding gap. They are also required to gather input from the groups that filed the lawsuit.

The League of Women Voters Pennsylvania has supported the six Pennsylvania school districts, Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, NAACP-PA State Conference, and the public school parents who filed this lawsuit since it began in 2014. We applaud Judge Cohn Jubelirer’s decision to defend the rights of Pennsylvania children, and will be advocating for a fair and equal funding formula going forward.

The League also congratulates and thanks Fund Our Schools PA and Education Voters PA for their work on this case. Without their advocacy and legal action, many Pennsylvanian students may have continued to attend woefully underfunded schools unable to adequately prepare them for college and work after graduation.

LWVPA joins our education coalition partners in calling on the PAlegislature to fund public schools in every corner of Pennsylvania, so all students can receive the quality public education guaranteed in our state constitution.