AFT’s Weingarten on Landmark Pennsylvania Supreme Court Decision on School Funding

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement responding to today’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision on school funding:

“Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed a foundational principle at the core of this country: that every child—no matter where they go to school or the circumstances of their upbringing—deserves a good public education. This obligation doesn’t stop where one school district ends and another begins. And it doesn’t rest with politicians in the state Legislature.

“Decades of underfunding and systemic inequity in Pennsylvania’s public schools have denied many children of that basic right. The state’s gap in educational spending between wealthy, predominantly white districts and poorer districts with a majority of children of color is the largest in the nation. This is immoral and, we believe, will be found at trial to be unconstitutional under Pennsylvania law.”