The Pennsylvania legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf recently enacted a state budget that added $160 million to basic education funding for school districts, a modest 2.6% increase, and added $50 million to special education funding, a more substantial increase of 4.4%. The budget also includes some welcome increases in state funding for early childhood programs.

Unfortunately, despite some congratulatory rhetoric from legislators, the approved state budget did little to change the overall dismal picture of school funding in Pennsylvania. According to a recent report published by the Center on Regional Politics at Temple University, Pennsylvania is becoming permanently divided between have and have-not districts. The report warned that Pennsylvania's education funding system is creating a “persistent gulf” between districts with surpluses and districts with shortfalls.

The findings from this report confirm what plaintiffs in an active school funding case have known for years: Pennsylvania's schools are defined by entrenched and deepening inequities, and children residing in underfunded school districts are deprived of educational opportunities. The petitioner school districts, parents and statewide organizations in William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, contend that school funding in Pennsylvania is both inadequate and inequitable. As a result of deficient state funding, children in “have-not” districts are deprived of their right to the quality education guaranteed to them by the state constitution, and there is no legitimate state purpose justifying such gross disparities between school districts. The Education Law Center, along with Public Interest Law Center and law firm O'Melveny & Myers, represents petitioners in the case. As we get ready for a likely trial date in 2020, evidence against the state is mounting.