Want to truly understand the depth of the public education funding crisis in Pennsylvania.
Pay a visit to the Southeast Delco School District right here in Delaware County.
The school board held a special Saturday night meeting to vote on a budget that they had rejected just two days before.
The budget passed. It includes another tax hike for district homeowners.
But it still contains a huge deficit.
To tame that beast the district will slash programs and cut jobs.
All of this stems at least in part due to Pennsylvania's off-kilter system of funding education. For starters, the state continues to fail to hit the 50 percent goal of funding education. Then add into that the fact that the current system relies on old data, creating an uneven, unlevel playing field that penalizes a lot of kids for no reason other than their zip code.
A group of parents across Pennsylvania, including a family from the William Penn School District, is suing the state and this unfair system. After first being tossed out of court, the suit was reinstated by a state appeals court. The plaintiffs now are expected to get their day in court in 2020.
Not a day too soon for the folks in Southeast Delco.
You can read our editorial on the problems with education funding here.
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