New angle
There was some very interesting news coming out the state’s Commonwealth Court this past week.
Officials from six school districts, along with parents of schoolchildren, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, and the Pennsylvania state conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit with the court claiming that the state is violating Pennsylvania’s constitution by allowing schools in low-income communities to operate with less funding than schools in wealthy areas.
“It turns the caliber of public education into an accident of geography,” the complaint states. “Children in property- and income-poor districts are denied the opportunity to receive even an adequate education, while their peers in property- and income-rich districts enjoy a high-quality education.”
A prior lawsuit from the Pennsylvania Association for Rural and Small Schools was filed in the late 1990s and was rejected by the state’s Supreme Court on the grounds that the court could not overrule the Legislature on decisions about education.
However, the attorneys who brought the latest suit are convinced they have a better argument this time because of new standardized test scores which show directly how the lack of funding affects students in low-income communities.
We’ve been beating this drum for quite some time, as relying mainly on property taxes to fund education has resulted in problems for our local school districts, who simply lack the resources of wealthier communities such as Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon. It puts our students at a huge disadvantage, especially when they’re forced to compete with students from affluent communities in college and elsewhere.
There has to be a fairer way to fund education in Pennsylvania without relying primarily on property taxes. A lot of lip service has been given to the topic over the years, with nothing concrete ever developing.
That’s why we’re intrigued with the possibilities of Act 76, which would eliminate school property taxes in favor of increases in the sales and income taxes. The money would be pooled in Harrisburg and distributed evenly across the state with each school district receiving the same amount of money per student.
Nothing could be simpler or fairer.
Some have pointed out that the money from the sales and income taxes could vary from year to year, resulting in some shortfalls for education funding. While that could be true, it’s a separate problem from the equal distribution of the funding.
Others, including our newly elected state Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, and state Rep. Ryan Warner, R-Perryopolis, have cautioned that residents will lose local control of funding if all the money is divided up in Harrisburg. However, how can they argue for local control when they know it means putting our students at a huge disadvantage? Control for control’s sake shouldn’t be the issue. The issue should be about finding a way to properly fund the education of our local students.
It also has to be pointed out that the current system benefits affluent communities, who are mainly represented by Republicans in Harrisburg. They’re the lawmakers who have been averse to any changes in the system. We hope that Stefano and Warner will be independent enough to make their own decisions and not join in lockstep with fellow GOP lawmakers on this important issue. They need to put the needs of our local students and taxpayers above everyone else.
It will be interesting to see how Act 76 fares when the state Legislature reconvenes in January. It did make some progress in the state Senate last year, with the measure passing the Senate’s Appropriations Committee. It will start all over in 2015, but there are a number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers who are dedicated to seeing it become law, and their efforts just might pay off next year. Victory in a lawsuit would be a good thing, but passage of a law guaranteeing equal funding for all students in Pennsylvania would be even better.