The Commonwealth Court has ruled the Pennsylvania state system of public school funding is unconstitutional.
This court ruling took place on Tuesday and pointed out large gaps in the way schools are funded based on income level and property value across Pennsylvania. Several school districts across the state have filed lawsuits.
A local attorney explained the lawsuit by saying that the school districts argued that public schools are underfunded by billions of dollars.
“What the court said is the way that we’re doing it now is unconstitutional. The court didn’t direct how they should do it in the future in order to be constitutional. Instead, the court left that to the state legislature and the governor to fashion legislation that met the requirements of our constitution. So, what comes next? With certainty, we don’t know,” said Eric Purchase, a local attorney.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro will work on developing a plan to make the public school system more equitable.