| $500 MILLION TO PA UNDERFUNDED SCHOOLS!
Eleven days late, but certainly with a history-making bang, lawmakers in Harrisburg passed a state budget that includes extraordinary new resources aimed at boosting the quality of education in the lowest wealth communities in the state.
For the first time ever, state lawmakers made meeting the needs of students in low-wealth school districts a state school funding priority. The kids attending schools with the least resources got moved to the front to benefit from more than A HALF BILLION DOLLARS in new state aid for their schools.
Now students who have suffered the inequities of out of date textbooks, swollen class sizes, shortages of counselors, libraries, and art classes or even working plumbing in their schools will soon be able to take for granted what wealthier schools have long been able to provide their students.
This alone would be enough to jump for joy but there’s an interesting twist. Republican and Democratic lawmakers also acknowledged that the state funding shortfall for low-wealth schools is real and significant, standing at $4.6 billion. After decades of passing the buck onto local taxpayers, and a ten-year lawsuit to prove the case, PA lawmakers finally conceded that the state is obligated to level the education playing field.
That’s the good news, but where this budget deal falls short is that state law does not yet commit lawmakers to fill this gap anytime soon. That means school districts can’t count on the funds they need to transform their schools to what wealthier students in the Commonwealth take for granted. At least not yet. We will be back in Harrisburg next year and every year until that gap is filled.
Ja-Neen Slaughter, a 10th grade student in Chester County, attends a school that doesn’t have enough funding to deliver a high-quality education. Speaking to state lawmakers she said, “Imagine a Pennsylvania school system where all students feel supported and valued, where their needs are being met and they feel like they matter, where teachers are qualified and certified to teach their subject, where parents feel secure sending their child to any school across the Commonwealth confident that their child is safe, learning, and thriving, and not just surviving.”
The Pennsylvania courts and Governor Shapiro and House Democrats laid the foundation for Ja-Neen’s hopes to become a reality with a $1.4 billion FY 25 budget proposal that was filled with educational reforms. Senate leaders put the brakes on those ambitions, cutting hundreds of millions from funds for low-wealth schools and stripping out measures to reduce waste and abuse that would have saved schools millions. Yet, all parties agree to put students like Ja-Neen first by making sure the schools teaching these students receive the first of several years of funds to close the gap. This new policy is a first for PA and a terrific indicator that we are finally on the road to achieving educational equity in Pennsylvania.
To everyone who responded to our emails wrote letters to lawmakers, answered our phone calls and made your calls to Harrisburg, trekked to the Capitol for rallies and meetings, attended press conferences and vigils, and used your voice on social media to make the case for funding public schools – this is your victory. You made history! There is more to do, but for now, mark July 11, 2025, in your calendar as the day your efforts for justice paid off. |
