Policy brief analyzes Pittsburgh region’s school spending ahead of fair funding trial
(The Center Square) – With just three weeks left until legal proceedings begin in a landmark education funding lawsuit, the Allegheny Institute of Public Policy this week analyzed the level of state spending in Pittsburgh area districts.
Allegheny County schools received $504 million in state funding this year, an increase of 3% over 2020-21 and more than 6% higher than the amount appropriated in 2017, the first year the state used a new weighted formula that funnels extra dollars toward students in poorer districts.
Since then, about $203 million in state funding has funneled through the new formula to Allegheny County schools. The other $2.2 billion the region has received in the same period has been distributed using an old formula based on district populations dating back to the early 1990s, often referred to as “hold harmless.”
And on Sept. 9, a Commonwealth Court judge will begin hearing arguments over whether the arrangement upholds the Legislature’s constitutional responsibility to provide an equitable education to all students.
The bifurcated model came after a 2016 legislative commission discovered that redirecting all of the state’s public school spending through the newer formula would cut funding in 64% of districts – an outcome that may have spurred local tax increases across the board to cover the difference.
Critics say raising taxes in economically disadvantaged communities proves less successful than in other wealthier districts and only leaves poor students farther behind.
So instead, legislators chose to guarantee state funding at the 2016-17 level to shield residents from tax increases and students from program cuts. But the slow growth of the targeted funding – just 11% of all state education spending – leaves many unsatisfied.
“Trial is coming soon and the General Assembly will no longer be able to continue ignoring their constitutional responsibility for public education,” said Public Interest Law Center attorney Michael Churchill in a March news release. “We look forward to the opportunity to show the public that decisions made by our leaders in Harrisburg deny hundreds of thousands of students in low-wealth districts the support they need to reach their full potential.”
The Public Interest Law Center is just one of several advocacy organizations that joined a legal challenge brought by William Penn School District, in Delaware County, and five others in 2014 that alleges the state’s basic education funding formula is inequitable and unconstitutional.
“Throughout his time in Wilkes Barre Area School District, my son attended schools that lacked sufficient staff, up-to-date textbooks, and science equipment. Technology and school buildings weren’t maintained due to lack of funding,” said Tracey Hughes, a parent and plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I want this to end. Our state must ensure that all our students receive the quality education they need and deserve to be successful in life.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, have argued that the new weighted formula makes the 2014 legal challenge moot – a position the court has since denied. Trial will begin Sept. 9 at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg and a livestream will be available for public viewing.
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