EDITORIAL: Court school funding decision likely to benefit rural districts

Feb. 10—A student in kindergarten when a group of school districts, parents and activists sued the Pennsylvania Legislature over inequitable educational funding would be in eighth grade now.

The wheels of justice may roll slowly, but they do roll.

On Tuesday, the state Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs — six school districts, four parents and two advocacy organizations — finding that Pennsylvania's over-dependence on local property taxes has caused a gap between the state's wealthiest school districts and the poorest ones.

It's about time.

The state Legislature can appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

However, the Republican-majority Commonwealth Court already has rejected claims by the Republican-majority Legislature. It's doubtful that a Democratic-majority Supreme Court would rule any differently.

If the ruling holds up, as expected, the biggest winners in this court case might be rural school districts like those in Mercer County, and their residents.

As recently as October, the educational research organization Research for Action declared Pennsylvania's education funding to be the nation's most inequitable.

Inequitable is the key word here. A cursory view of Pennsylvania's school funding would indicate that the state is spending more than enough to provide an adequate public education for all of its children.

That's the position embraced by the Commonwealth Foundation — a Pennsylvania-based think tank promoting market-based educational solutions — which reports that the state spent $19,900, eighth highest in the United States, in 2021-22.

But that's an average. You and Elon Musk probably have an average net worth of about $95 billion. But that's only because the Twitter maven's net worth sits at about $190 billion.

Average per-student spending is a deceptive metric, and the deception did not fool Commonwealth Court — nor Judge Renée Conn Jubelirer, who wrote the case's 800-page decision.

In her decision, Jubelirer accounted for "Level Up," former Gov. Tom Wolf's effort to provide poorer school districts with more funding, as a tacit admission that state officials were aware of. "the existence of inadequate education funding in low-wealth districts."

An examination of data by the WalletHub website indicates that programs like Level Up are improving funding to districts with less resources, dependence on local property taxes could be leaving rural school districts behind.

In a report released last August, WalletHub found that school districts in Pennsylvania had median per-pupil spending of $15,137. Hermitage ($13,278), Sharpsville ($13,727), Greenville ($13,832) and Mercer ($14,265) are all below the median.

So are rural districts like Southmoreland ($13,361) in Westmoreland County and Albert Gallatin ($13,432) in Fayette County along the West Virginia state line.

These school districts all have a few things in common — they have neither the bustling shopping districts of a North Allegheny School District ($17,263) in Allegheny County, a wealthy residential tax base like Fox Chapel Area School District ($22,191) in Allegheny County. nor do they have wide-ranging access to assistance that poorer districts receive.

If the state, albeit under court-ordered duress, steps up and increases basic educational spending, it could amount to the best kind of property tax relief, which would, again accrue to the benefit of rural communities like those in Mercer County.

On the local level, school districts usually make up the largest share of property tax costs, dwarfing municipalities and counties, the other two taxing bodies. For farm owners — who, at least until the Marcellus Shale boom — have tended to be land rich and cash poor — property taxes carry a particular wallop.

A shift away from local property taxes, toward statewide sales taxes, income taxes or even a severance tax on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale field, could improve educational outcomes and offer relief to state property owners.

To find links for sources, read this article at sharonherald.com