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1EquityLawsuit1Major ComponentsofPARSS Ruling2Pennsylvania’sFunding Formulas7Pennsylvania’sFunding Future9Endnotescontentsabout RPPIRPPIThe Reason Foundation is a national researchand educational organization thatexplores and promotes the twin values ofrationality and freedom as the basic underpinningsof a good society. Since 1978,the Los Angeles-based foundation has providedpractical public policy research,analysis, and commentary based upon theprinciples of individual liberty and responsibilityand limited government.Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI), a divisionof the Reason Foundation, fusestheory and practice to influence public policies.The Institute's research draws uponeconomics, science, and institutional analysisto critique public policies and advancenew policy ideas in a variety of policy areas,including education, infrastructure andtransportation, the environment, urbanland use and local economic development,social services, and privatization and governmentreform. To that analysis, the Institutebrings a political philosophy that supportsrule of law, marketplace competition,economic and civil liberty, personal responsibilityin social and economic interactions,and institutional arrangementsthat foster dynamism and innovation.The Reason Foundation is a tax-exempt educationalorganization as defined under IRScode 501(c)(3). The Reason Foundation neitherseeks nor accepts government funding,and is supported by individual, foundationand corporate contributions. Nothingappearing in this document is to be construedas necessarily representing theviews of the Reason Foundation or its trustees,or as an attempt to aid or hinder thepassage of any bill before any legislativebody.Photos used in this publication are Copyright© 1996. Photodisc, Inc. Copyright © 1998.Reason Foundation. All Rights Reserved.about the authorRichard C. Seder is the director of education studies for the Reason Public Policy Institute, a national public policyresearch organization. Mr. Seder has done extensive work in the area of quantitative and qualitative research on thestructure of educational systems; school choice programs; accountability issues; and the impact of expenditures onstudent achievement. Before joining RPPI, Mr. Seder worked as a research assistant to the executive director for theCato Institute in Washington, D.C., where he assisted in a study analyzing the relationship between public and privatepost-secondary institutions in three states. Prior to that, he was the recipient of a Charles G. Koch Fellowship throughthe Center of Market Processes examining the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy. Additionally, Mr. Seder hasserved as a project director for the Allegheny County School System in Pennsylvania, where he conducted extensive research on 43public school districts. Mr. Seder holds a Masters of Science in Public Policy and Management from the Heinz School at Carnegie MellonUniversity in Pittsburgh as well as a double bachelors degree in Government and Economics from Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Equity LawsuitThe Pennsylvania Association of Rural andSmall Schools (PARSS) filed suit againstthe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1991claiming that the legislature failed in providinga “thorough and efficient” system of education.Their claim was based solely upon disparitiesin expenditures between school districts.Judge Dan Pellegrini handed down hisdecision on July 9, 1998 that the case was nonjudiciable,that because all school districts thattestified indicated that children in their districtswere receiving an adequate education, theCommonwealth was not in violation of constitutionalprovisions calling for a “thorough andefficient” system of public education. The courtnoted that all matters dealing with school financeare political matters and therefore arein the jurisdiction of the legislature.The court’s ruling mirrored previous court rulingschallenging the Pennsylvania school financesystem. Earlier in 1998, the CommonwealthCourt ruled similarly in Marrero v. Commonwealthof Pennsylvania that the Commonwealthwas in compliance with the state constitutionand that matters such as these fallinto the hands of the General Assembly. 1 Inthis case, the Philadelphia School Districtbrought suit against the Commonwealth claimingthat the funding system systemically discriminatedagainst the school district.The constitutionality of the Pennsylvania schoolfinance system was challenged once before andwas heard before the Pennsylvania SupremeCourt. In this case, plaintiffs sought equalized fundingacross school districts. The court ruled that itwas unable to judicially define what constituted a“normal program of educational services.” 2Major Components ofPARSS Ruling: Concen-tration on InputsA. Disparities in SpendingArguments against the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania centered on disparities in expendituresamong school districts. PARSS andits school finance experts contended that as longas differences in spending per child existed betweenschool districts, the Commonwealth wasnot meeting its constitutional obligation to providea “thorough and efficient” system of education.In comparing the per-pupil instructional expendituresbetween the five percent of school districtswith the lowest property wealth againstthe five percent of school districts with the highestproperty wealth, the statistical extremes,there was close to a $1,700 per child differencein spending for school year 1993-94 as presentedin the case (Figure 1).REGULAR PROGRAMS INSTRUCTION EXPENDITURESPER PUPIL (1993–1994)Rich$4,069.79PoorStatePhiladelphia$2,372.82$2,880.59$2,523.51Pittsburgh$3,618.85$0 $1000figure$2000 $3000 $4000 $50001Source: Judge Pellegrini Decision Memorandum, p. 48.pennsylvania school finance1
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