(Feb. 3, 2026) All Pennsylvania children are entitled to a contemporary, effective, comprehensive public education. In his FY27 budget address today, Governor Shapiro proposed $565 million to continue closing the school funding adequacy gap, issuing a clarion call to meet Pennsylvania’s constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education. As the governor therefore recognized, state leaders must continue to respond to the Commonwealth Court’s February 2023 decision declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding system inequitable, inadequate, and unconstitutional.
Two things can be true. First, investments made thus far through the adequacy formula have already begun to deliver real benefits for students across the state, including providing full day kindergarten, expanding mental health programs, increasing afterschool tutoring, and improving access to STEM education and school libraries. The Governor’s proposal to build on this progress and continue the path towards adequacy is critical. Second, despite these investments, schools today remain 3.8 billion dollars underfunded, and the current timeline for compliance is far too slow. Those children who have constantly born the weight of this neglect – low-income children, children of color, and children with disabilities – will continue to absorb the consequences of that failure until this job is completed.
Moreover, the proposed savings from cyber charter reform ($75 million), along withadditional funds for Basic Education Funding ($50 million) and Special Education Funding ($50 million), are critical. But in the upcoming budget process, these investments and savings must be increased to at least the rate of inflation to ensure the adequacy formula functions as intended and to avoid creating new underfunded districts in the process.
Finally, investments must include sufficient funding needed to improve school facilities and expand access to high quality pre-K – both of which the court recognized as key components of a thorough and efficient system of public education.
The General Assembly must build on the governor’s proposal by addressing outstanding needs and accelerating the timeline to close the adequacy gap. A child’s time in school is precious, and Pennsylvania’s public school students cannot afford to keep waiting.
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The Public Interest Law Center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. We use
litigation, community education, advocacy, and organizing to secure their access to fundamental resources and services in the areas of public education, housing, health care, employment, environmental justice and voting. For more information, visit www.pubintlaw.org or follow on X @PubIntLawCtr.
The Education Law Center-PA (ELC-PA) is a nonprofit, legal advocacy organization with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, dedicated to ensuring that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education. Through legal representation, impact litigation, community engagement, and policy advocacy, ELC-PA advances the rights of underserved children, including children living in poverty, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children with disabilities, multilingual
learners, LGBTQ+ youth, children experiencing homelessness, and children at the intersection of multiple underserved identities. For more information, visit elc-pa.org or @edlawcenterpa on X.
Joint Statement from the Education Law Center-PA and the Public Interest Law Center
November 12, 2025 — Today, after a months-long delay, Pennsylvania lawmakers have finally passed a state budget that continues the Commonwealth’s progress toward meeting the funding commitments required under the landmark Commonwealth Court ruling mandating adequate and equitable funding for public schools.
“Lawmakers’ five-month delay in passing this year’s budget left schools, educators, and families in unnecessary limbo and resulted in avoidable harm,” said Deborah Gordon Klehr, Executive Director of the Education Law Center-PA. “But with this budget, lawmakers affirmed that the Commonwealth remains on the path toward a fully and fairly funded public education system. This is another step forward – one that must be followed by continued commitment and sustained investment until every student, in every community, has the resources they need to learn and thrive.”
“The era of one-off, ad hoc education budgets is over,” said Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, Senior Attorney at the Public Interest Law Center. “This budget shows bipartisan consensus that the march to constitutional school funding is not optional. It took too long, but we moved one year closer to a system that will transform lives.”
This work is far from over. Lawmakers have committed to a path to fully funded public schools, but that constitutional mandate remains years from completion. Getting there will require sustained increases so that schools can provide the resources that matter to students – quality professionals, modern technology, up-to-date curriculum, and safe, appropriate buildings. Pennsylvania must now ensure that these funds reach classrooms quickly and are used effectively to close opportunity gaps and deliver tangible improvements for students.
Lawmakers must also continue with increases in basic and special education funding, enact more meaningful cyber charter school funding reform, fund Pre-K and facilities, and continue to build a public education system that meets the needs of every child, in every community, every year.
By continuing to close the funding gaps that public schools have long grappled with, we move from promise to implementation: from the acknowledgement of something fundamentally wrong, to the actual solution.
