The state’s Commonwealth Court handed down a decision today regarding a lawsuit brought by several petitioners over public school funding. A similar lawsuit in the late 1990s that went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ended when the high court said it was an issue for the General Assembly, not the courts.
Since that time with the state enacting new academic standards the petitioners argued that the resources to meet those standards were not adequate. However, the court noted in its decision that “…[the standards] do not confer funding discretion upon this court nor provide us with judicially manageable standards for determining whether the General Assembly has discharged its duty under the Constitution”.
So, barring an appeal to the State Supreme Court, the decision puts the funding formula decision with the General Assembly, which appointed a Basic Education Funding Commission and is expected to come up with a formula by this June. In an article from yesterday one of the co-chairs of the Commission stated “People are asking me prematurely what the formula is going to be and I don’t know at this point because it’s not done…But what I can tell you is it’s going to be fair for everybody.”
