PENNSYLVANIA — Despite historic increases for educational funding in the 2024-25 PA state budget, education advocates say it falls short of fully addressing the 2023 court ruling that current …
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PENNSYLVANIA — Despite historic increases for educational funding in the 2024-25 PA state budget, education advocates say it falls short of fully addressing the 2023 court ruling that current levels of education violated the PA state constitution. While education advocates scored big wins in the 2024 Pennsylvania state budget, there’s more work yet to do in the years to come, including finishing closing the state’s education funding gap.
The unprecedented additional $1.1 billion allocated to education in the 2024-25 Pennsylvania State budget is a result of the landmark 2023 decision from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that ruled the state’s current levels of education funding violate the state’s constitutional right to education.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says it’s “the largest investment in K-12 public education in the commonwealth’s history.”
But in a budget breakdown from PA Schools Work, a coalition advocating for the commonwealth’s public schools, the organization concludes, “the budget falls short of fully addressing the court’s mandate.”
PA Schools Work said the increased budget investment marked “a significant step towards addressing the unconstitutional school funding system,” and praised the PA State legislature for acknowledging the existence of a $4.8 billion gap between how much schools have and how much they need to deliver an adequate education.
However, it identified the need for “consistent, substantial increases in education funding over the coming years at an accelerated pace to close the remaining adequacy gap.”
The legislature indicated the state was responsible for $4.5 billion of the $4.8 billion known as the “adequacy gap.” The 2024-25 budget has accounted for 11 percent of the increase, or $494 million in funds necessary to fill the adequacy gap and target the 348 school districts most in need.
Children First PA, an organization that advocates for education, health and family stability, came to the same conclusion as PA Schools Work.
The budget “does not bind lawmakers to a timeframe to fill the $4.5 billion funding gap,” Children First PA wrote in its Childwatch newsletter. “This means that districts can’t count on future funds necessary to launch sustained improvements to transform their schools.”
“At least not yet. We’ll be back in Harrisburg next year and every year until that gap is filled,” it wrote.
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