The Pennsylvania Constitution requires the state to “establish and maintain a thorough and efficient system of public education,” but students in poor areas are trapped in failing schools because of the state’s system for funding public schools. While poor neighborhoods are forced to set taxes high and still can’t afford adequate schools, affluent communities next door enjoy a world-class, well-funded education.
Believing strongly that the inequality built into Pennsylvania’s public school system violates the Constitution as well as students’ rights, the Law Center in 1997 partnered with the City and School District of Philadelphia to file Marrero v. Commonwealth, which comprehensively challenged the constitutionality of the state’s persistently inadequate public school system.
