The Governor  today decided to allow a Republican-backed budget for 2015-2016 become law.  This means the doors of our schools will stay open and the lights will stay on. But as the Campaign for Fair Education Funding noted, today’s action does nothing to ensure that our children have sufficient resources so that all students – no matter where they live – can succeed in school and meet the state’s academic standards.  The Commonwealth’s continued failure to provide children with the resources necessary for a quality  education shows why  Pennsylvania courts must step in.  The important legal issue is  whether the Legislature is violating Pennsylvania’s constitutional mandate that it support an effective system of public education.  Whether the courts can even weigh in  is the issue presently before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in William Penn School District  v. Pennsylvania Department of Education,  a lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Law Center, along with the Education Law Center.