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.