November 2021
Nov. 12 Is the Court Date
Students Have Been Waiting For
Next week in Harrisburg, we’re going to trial to ask Commonwealth Court to rule Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional, so that all Pennsylvania students can finally receive the quality education they deserve.

Our students simply do not have what they need or deserve. And with the state covering such a low share of education costs, the differences in resources between affluent and low-wealth school districts are appalling — on average $4,800 per student. The state has stark racial disparities in school funding as well; even controlling for poverty, school districts with larger proportions of white students are more adequately funded.

The funding problem impacts schools in every corner of the state: rural, urban, and suburban districts. Our legislature could fix this if they wanted to, but for decades they have chosen not to. They have left us with a system that is inadequate, inequitable, and unconstitutional.

Beginning on Nov. 12, we will argue that Pennsylvania’s school funding system violates the education clause and equal protection provisions of the state’s constitution. The court will be hearing how this failure has affected our petitioners: six school districts, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference, and families whose children attend underfunded, under-resourced schools.

You can learn more about the case at our website FundOurSchoolsPA.org, where you can find lots of information for sharing: fliers and other resource materials, a video series, “Pennsylvanians speak out,” materials in Spanish, and a map showing school district adequacy gaps. We hope you will follow the trial and participate in online discussions by using the hashtag #FundOurSchoolsPA on social media.
ELC and the Funding Trial in the News
ELC’s work was prominent in a front-page story in USA Today, bringing attention to “educational gerrymandering” in the Philadelphia region — the gross educational disparities and mobility barriers that result from the combination of an inequitable school funding system and limited affordable housing in affluent communities. The story included comments from ELC executive director Deborah Gordon Klehr and highlighted our funding lawsuit. 
ELC contributed to a USA Today story on educational inequity, highlighting the disparity between city schools like Overbrook High School (above) and schools in affluent nearby suburbs. Photo: Alia Wong, USA Today.
And last week, The Morning Call, Allentown’s newspaper, published a column by Deborah titled “Why We Are Suing Pennsylvania Over School Funding.”
Being #45 Shortchanges Our Children
Along with our partners in the PA Schools Work campaign, we continue to push for legislative action in Harrisburg to address the state’s school funding crisis. In a press conference at the Capitol on Oct. 27, we joined our allies in highlighting that Pennsylvania has dropped to 45th place among states in the percentage of school spending that is covered by the state, putting an increasing burden for school funding on local taxpayers and leading to extreme inequities.

Our remarks emphasized that low-wealth school districts, where many of our state’s Black and Brown students live, pay the biggest price for the state’s paltry support. Half of the state’s Black students and 40% of Latinx students are in the districts that fall in the bottom fifth in local wealth, most of which are severely underfunded.
ELC executive director Deborah Gordon Klehr speaks at the Capitol.
‘National Homeless Youth Awareness Month’: Know Your McKinney-Vento
November is National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, but schools have a year-round legal obligation to afford students experiencing homelessness the robust protections of the federal McKinney-Vento Act. This act provides important supports across the school experience — including school stability and immediate enrollment; equal access to academic opportunities and extracurriculars; eliminating barriers to retention, attendance, and graduation; and protections against discrimination or stigmatization based on housing status.  

In 2019-2020, 38,000 school-age children in Pennsylvania were identified as experiencing homelessness. We know this to be significant undercount because Pennsylvania ranks 36th out of 50 states in identifying school-aged children experiencing homelessness. This means many students in our communities are denied guaranteed protections.

The enduring impact of COVID-19, coupled with discriminatory economic and housing systems, will mean that more students will experience homelessness this year. Black and Brown children will be overrepresented in this figure due to intersecting systemic barriers. 

Consider contacting your local school district to become a volunteer educational surrogate parent to help make education decisions for youth experiencing homelessness who have special education needs and don’t have anyone to serve in this important role. Learn more about students’ McKinney-Vento rights here. If you aren’t sure who helps students experiencing homelessness at a particular school, check out this directory. ELC remains committed to advancing the rights of students experiencing homelessness.
ELC Advocates for
New Regulations on Charter Schools
Pennsylvania’s Department of Education has proposed new regulations for charter schools and cyber charter schools to address ethics, admissions processes, and governance practices. The Education Law Center submitted comments last month to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission on Regulation #6-349, urging swift adoption of the regulations.

Our recommendations emphasized the following goals for the state’s charter regulations:

  • Clarifying local school boards’ authority and their responsibilities as charter authorizers with control over charter applications, renewals, and terminations;
  • Ensuring that charter schools’ admissions, enrollment, and operational practices are legally compliant, non-discriminatory and do not impact which students can enroll, access, and remain in a charter school;
  • Implementing new requirements so that there is not a lower standard of service provision among charters in meeting the needs of students with disabilities;
  • Creating greater accountability to students, parents, and taxpayers by strengthening ethics standards for charter governing boards.

The regulations are part of a larger effort to make charters more accountable, improve access and student performance, and control runaway charter costs, which stretch school budgets and divert funding from students in district schools. 
Don’t forget to check out our 2021 Back-To-School Guide, which includes a new set of 18 free and fillable self-advocacy tools and 30 different rights-focused fact sheets for families, advocates, and providers. This comprehensive collection of tools and fact sheets help families navigate barriers in enrollment, attendance, special education supports and services, language access, bullying and harassment, and racial inequality and discrimination. 
Congratulations to Our Senior Attorneys:
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Hetal Dhagat, Kristina Moon, and Margie Wakelin to the position of senior attorney at ELC.
Hetal Dhagat, an attorney in the Pittsburgh office since 2019, supports ELC’s litigation and policy advocacy across all issue areas. While at ELC, Hetal has played a leading role in advancing the rights of English learners. In previous positions, she has engaged in litigation and advised clients on issues of environmental law, represented families in immigration proceedings, and taught English as a second language.
Kristina Moon, an attorney in the Philadelphia office since 2016, supports ELC’s litigation and policy advocacy across all issue areas and has played a leading role in ELC’s impact litigation. Previously, Kristina worked as a staff attorney with Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, where she used litigation and administrative advocacy to advance the rights of incarcerated individuals and specialized in young adult advocacy.
Margie Wakelin, an attorney in the Philadelphia office since 2018, focuses on litigation efforts and policy advocacy to advance educational access issues for all students. Margie has played a leading role in ELC’s work on behalf of students with disabilities. She began her career as a high school special education teacher in Mississippi. Following law school, she led an attorney team at Equip for Equality that represented students with disabilities in both individual and systemic educational matters.
Each has over ten years of legal experience, excellent litigation and policy advocacy skills, and deep subject matter expertise. In addition, each attorney has undertaken significant leadership roles at ELC as they supervise attorneys, lead and organize teams, and use their strong strategic skills to advance our mission at ELC. Congratulations!
Election Day is Tomorrow!
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, Pennsylvanians will go to the polls to elect judges, school board members, and other essential roles. Every year the stakes get higher — in 2021 some school boards in Pennsylvania are voting to ban books, end hard-won diversity-equity-inclusion programs, and deny students accurate information about our present and our past. Please vote! 
Join Our Team: We're Hiring!
See our website for a full description of job opportunities at ELC, including staff attorney positions in our Pittsburgh and Philadelphia offices.
What We're Reading...
Special Education Funding: Fund Services For Kids, Not Profits For Charter Managers by ELC board member and Temple Law professor Susan DeJarnatt for Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly


Attacks on school board meetings are threatening democracy. Will educators help save it? by Joseph Kahne and John Rogers for The Los Angeles Times

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A copy of the official registration and financial information of the Education Law Center may be obtained from the Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-880-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.