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Rally in Reading backs education fair funding effort in Pennsylvania

About three dozen people gathered Tuesday at Eighth and Washington streets, wearing bright red shirts as they stood beside the Reading School District administration building.

They sang songs and chanted. Some clanked small red cowbells.

The words emblazoned on their T-shirts in capital letters shouted the story of why they were there: “PA STUDENTS DESERVE FAIR FUNDING.”

The event was an education funding rally organized by Make the Road Pennsylvania. It was part of a statewide effort to shine light on an ongoing school-funding trial currently being held in Commonwealth Court.

The suit was filed in 2014 on behalf of six school districts, claiming the way the state funds education is inadequate and inequitable.

Three families and two statewide advocacy groups — the Pennsylvania chapter of the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools — are also plaintiffs.

The case went to trial late last year, with the Public Interest Law Center, the Education Law Center and the private firm O’Melveny arguing the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

The trial wrapped up last week, and the sides are waiting for the judges to issue a ruling. It is unclear how long that may take, but it might take months.

In the meantime, supporters of the lawsuit are taking their message to the street.

At the Reading vigil, Patty Torres, organizing director of Make the Road, painted a picture of why the lawsuit is so important.

She said that Pennsylvania only provides 38% of the cost of kindergarten through 12th grade public education, a figure that ranks the state fifth from the bottom across the nation. The lack of state support, she said, means that local dollars have to fill in the rest.

And that leads to education funding being dependent on local wealth, she said, a system that shortchanges students in poor areas of the state like Reading.

“The students who need the most get the least because of where they live,” Torres said. “And that’s not right.”

Torres said that students in Reading aren’t getting a fair shake.

They miss out on things that better-funded, suburban schools have no problem providing, like tutoring, safe buildings, sufficient numbers of teachers and counselors and the newest and best technology.


Source: Berkshire mont

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