Public Education: A Constitutional Right in the Commonwealth

By Derek Willie

Derek Willie is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.

On September 25th, 2013, Laporshia Massey, a student at West Philadelphia’s Bryant Elementary School, alerted school officials that she was having trouble breathing. The school called her father to inform him that his daughter was feeling sick but could remain in school. When he picked her up after school that day, he immediately rushed her to the hospital but it was too late: Laporshia died, and not from any obscure, incurable malady, but from an asthma attack. Her life could have been saved, but no one at the school was trained to recognize her symptoms and know the proper medical response. Why? The School District of Philadelphia couldn’t afford a full-time nurse. [1]

In Philadelphia public schools, shortages in critical school personnel are commonplace: few schools can afford guidance counselors, social workers, arts programs, or even paper. Earlier this year, Emma Brown of The Washington Post compared the resources of two high schools in the Philadelphia area: one, a school in the sprawling suburb of Lower Merion, which could afford to provide students with personal computers and fund comprehensive arts education; the other, a West Philadelphia high school, which could not even afford to provide the students with paper (unless the teachers bought it with money from their own pockets), let alone a  social worker, and provided the students with almost no artistic instruction. [2] The educational disparity in Pennsylvania is irrefutable, as recent data show that “school districts with the highest poverty rates here receive one-third fewer state and local tax dollars, per pupil, than the most affluent districts.” [3] The reason behind this failure is rather simple: school funding is largely based on the amount of property tax collected in each school district. For districts with higher property values, and ipso facto high-income households, the property tax revenue is greater, and thus yields more school funding. Therefore, students in low-income districts are significantly disadvantaged in terms of their education. [4]

The political response to Pennsylvania’s disturbing educational reality is strikingly stratified as Democrats push to augment funding for public schools through tax increases and Republicans cling to their sacred no-tax pledges. However, Article III, Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states, “[t]he General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the commonwealth.” [5] Thus, the provision of good public education in Pennsylvania should not be subject to a political mandate, because it is a constitutional obligation of the state government.

Interestingly, the Pennsylvania courts have denied their ability to regulate public school funding. When the School District of Philadelphia sued the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 1999, the Commonwealth Court ruled against the petitioner, maintaining that it is the responsibility of the General Assembly to craft a system of equitable school funding, as delineated in the Pennsylvania Constitution (the Supreme Court later refused to hear the appeal). According to the Court’s logic, interference from the judiciary in the creation of a more egalitarian distribution of educational resources would be inappropriate, if not unconstitutional. [6] However, t if the legislature fails to uphold the quality of school system prescribed by the constitution, then is it not within the Court’s jurisdiction to address that issue?

Nonetheless, we must concede that the judiciary could be overstepping its role and moving into the realm of politics by going so far as to evaluate the legislature’s system. [7] Yet today, when the unconscionably paltry funding of Philadelphia schools is palpable, when the educational disparity throughout the commonwealth is increasingly evident, when a girl dies because her school could not afford to hire a full-time nurse, it seems there can be no denial that Pennsylvania’s education system is not only ineffective and inefficient, but dangerously underfunded enough to mandate judicial interference.

Still, the Pennsylvania judiciary could change its mind.  Although the Commonwealth Court ruled against a group of underfunded, low-income school districts (excluding Philadelphia) in their most recent suit against Former Governor Tom Corbett’s Department of Education, the districts are certain to appeal to an incoming Democratic-majority Supreme Court that may be more inclined to reject the Commonwealth Court’s reasoning and overturn the ruling (if it actually does hear the appeal.) [8] Moreover, the case’s defendants have recently changed to officials in Governor Tom Wolf’s Department of Education. Wolf, who has advocated for tax increases to pay for educational funding, strongly contrasts with his predecessor, Corbett, whom many argue was originally responsible for the most deleterious cuts. [9] However, the most important change in circumstance relevant to the case may be the realization of the state’s comprehensive school assessments and graduation standards. [10] Now that the state has reified what it means for a school to be successful or failing, the judiciary’s claim that it is unfit to evaluate the education system established by the General Assembly has little standing.

As we remember the appalling tragedy of Laporshia Massey’s death, we must certainly acknowledge that the state of school funding in Pennsylvania, especially in Philadelphia, is dangerous to the well being of the students. Dangerous not only in the sense that students are not receiving adequate care in school-a reality with potentially fatal consequences-but also in the sense that the futures of Pennsylvania’s low-income students are in serious jeopardy due to their poor education and lack of resources. For everyone across the commonwealth, the stakes could not be higher.


[1] "After Philadelphia Asthma Death, Focus On School Staffing." CBS Philly. October 17, 2013. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/10/17/after-philadelphia-asthma-death-focus-on-school-staffing/.
[2] Brown, Emma. "Pa. Schools Are the Nation's Most Inequitable. The New Governor Wants to Fix That." Washington Post. April 22, 2015. Accessed November 6, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/pa-schools-are-the-nations-most-inequitable-the-new-governor-wants-to-fix-that/2015/04/22/3d2f4e3e-e441-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html.
[3] Ibid
[4] Hall, Peter. "School Districts, Parents Will Take School-funding Challenge to State Supreme Court." Themorningcall.com. April 21, 2015. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-school-funding-lawsuit-20150421-story.html.
[5] "The Constitution of Pennsylvania." The Official Website for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=00&div=0&chpt=3.
[6] Kerksta, Patrick. "Lawsuit: School Funding in Pennsylvania Is Unconstitutional | News | Philadelphia Magazine." Philadelphia Magazine. November 10, 2014. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/11/10/school-funding-lawsuit-corbett-sued/.
[7] Ibid.
[8] McKelvey, Wallace. "Impact of Pa. Supreme Court Election Will Be 'felt for the next 20 Years'" Penn Live. November 4, 2015. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://www.pennlive.com/news/2015/11/pa_supreme_court_impacts.html.
[9] Brown, Emma. "Pa. Schools Are the Nation's Most Inequitable. The New Governor Wants to Fix That." Washington Post. April 22, 2015. Accessed November 6, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/pa-schools-are-the-nations-most-inequitable-the-new-governor-wants-to-fix-that/2015/04/22/3d2f4e3e-e441-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html.
[10] Kerksta, Patrick. "Lawsuit: School Funding in Pennsylvania Is Unconstitutional | News | Philadelphia Magazine." Philadelphia Magazine. November 10, 2014. Accessed November 6, 2015. http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/11/10/school-funding-lawsuit-corbett-sued/.

Photo Credit: Flickr User Jeremy Segrott

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