Sign a Resolution in Support of Pennsylvania's School Funding Lawsuit
WHO ARE YOU PETITIONING? * Governor Tom Wolf, Secretary Noe Ortega, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, House Majority Leader Brian Cutler
This year Pennsylvania’s historic school funding lawsuit will go to trial.
Sign onto this resolution to show your support for a statewide solution to Pennsylvania’s failure to meet its constitutional mandate to ensure quality public education.
Every child in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has the right to an education that prepares them for college or career. In fact, the Pennsylvania Constitution speaks to the right of a “thorough and efficient” education.
But, throughout Pennsylvania, schools have not received adequate and equitable funding to meet our children’s educational needs.
As part of the ongoing work to ensure public school students in Pennsylvania have the resources they need to receive an education that prepares them for college and career, a lawsuit was filed by legal advocates on behalf of families and school districts.
Organizations throughout Pennsylvania are passing resolutions in support of the school funding lawsuit to turn up the heat on the school funding problem in our communities and demonstrate public support for legal action and remedy.
Individuals can sign this resolution, which will be delivered to the Governor Wolf, the PA Secretary of Education and PA Senate and House majority leaders.
Sponsored by
To:
WHO ARE YOU PETITIONING? * Governor Tom Wolf, Secretary Noe Ortega, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, House Majority Leader Brian Cutler
From:
[Your Name]
WHEREAS education in Pennsylvania is a constitutional right, articulated in Article III, Section 14 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It states that “The 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”; and
Whereas there is substantial evidence that both individual health and economic well-being are tied to educational outcomes;
Whereas there is ample evidence that community prosperity is related to the quality of education;
Whereas when the state fails to adequately fund education, it puts an unfair responsibility on local taxpayers, which cannot be met in low-wealth districts even when paying higher tax rates;
Whereas the General Assembly has defined what a thorough education is by identifying educational standards (the standards used in PSSA and Keystone exams) that all PA students are expected to meet; and
Whereas the current school funding system in Pennsylvania results in grossly different amounts of money spent on children in different districts in violation of the equal protection provisions of the state Constitution; with much less money spent on children in low-wealth districts even though their students have additional educational needs; now, therefore be it
Resolved, that the undersigned support the parents of individual children, the school districts, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, and the PA NAACP State Conference in their suit to enforce Pennsylvania’s constitutional guarantee of “a thorough and efficient system of public education” and urges the Pennsylvania General Assembly to provide a fair, adequate, and predictable funding system that enables all children to meet state academic standards and does not discriminate against low-wealth school districts.