Above: Adeel Mangi, via Wikipedia user Graeme Sloan - Sipa

Adeel Mangi, a partner at Patterson Belknap, was nominated by President Biden to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. If confirmed, he would become the first Muslim American to serve as an appeals court judge.

In recent weeks, Mr. Mangi has faced a series of "guilt-by-association" accusations and attacks. On March 25, members of the Law Center's Board of Directors wrote a letter to Senator Casey, urging him to publicly support Mr. Mangi's nomination and denounce the disinformation campaign against him.

"We strongly support his nomination and are deeply disturbed by the outlandish, unfounded, and Islamophobic attacks he continues to face," our board members write. "We are all better off when there is a place on the federal bench for a jurist as capable as Mr. Mangi. In the face of these shameful attacks that threaten the quality and reputation of our judiciary, we cannot stay silent." Read the letter here.

Left: Our senior attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg testifying to the PA House Democratic Policy Committee

On February 6, just before the one-year anniversary of the decision in our school funding lawsuit, Governor Josh Shapiro put forward a game-changing proposal for public education in his state budget address. "No one here should be OK with an unconstitutional education system for our kids," the Governor said--and he backed up those words with action.

He endorsed the work of the Basic Education Funding Commission, which released a plan to close school funding gaps in Pennsylvania by providing an additional $5.1 billion in state funding annually within seven years, targeted to students in low-wealth districts that have been deeply shortchanged, along with an additional $970 million for districts where local taxpayers have picked up the slack for insufficient state funding.

For the 2024-25 school year, Governor Shapiro's budget proposal would make a down payment on bringing the system into compliance, targeting $872 million to underfunded school districts where students have been denied sufficient resources. Governor Shapiro's proposal puts the plan for a constitutional school funding system in motion. View a spreadsheet showing the impact of this proposal, and the Basic Education Funding Commission's plan, on every school district in Pennsylvania.

This month, we continued to stand up for public school funding driven by student needs and children's potential, not by local wealth and Harrisburg politics.

On March 5, our senior attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg testified to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee on the transformative impact of the Governor's budget proposal and the need for a long-term plan for constitutional school funding.

“This single-year appropriation should not obscure the broader task in front of you all: to enact a plan that charts out a year-by-year plan for full constitutional compliance," he said. "The time for single-year budget fights must end.” Pennsylvania must enact year-by-year targets to ensure that the entire adequacy gap--the shortfall between the resources needed to fulfill students' fundamental right to education and the funding currently available in public schools--is filled. Read more here.

As we wrote in our joint statement with our co-counsel at Education Law Center-PA: "we have before us one—and only one—plan that answers the court’s command: the plan adopted by the Basic Education Funding Commission and affirmed today by the governor. "

It's time for all of us to help make this plan a reality. Laura Boyce, executive director of Teach Plus PA, made the stakes of this moment clear in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"If not now, with a historic court ruling and a $14 billion state surplus, then when? If not this plan, the only concrete plan that has been offered to address the lawsuit, then what’s the alternative that will pass constitutional muster? What are the costs of failing to adequately fund our public schools?"

Here are a few highlights of statewide press coverage:

• Panelists tell what's at stake for Hazelton Area in school funding proposal - Hazleton Standard-Speaker, 3/26/24
• Laura Boyce: We've got the funding for public schools the state constitution requires - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/26/24
• Empower students by better funding their schools, and watch them succeed - Penn Live, 3/12/24
• State education secretary makes his case for $1.1 billion budget proposal - WITF, 3/12/24
• Budget Secretary Monson defends Shapiro plan to spend part of Pennsylvania's surplus - Pennsylvania Capital-Star, 3/8/24

Left: A speaker at a November PA Schools Work day of action in Harrisburg

There has never been a more important time to make your voice heard for fully and fairly funded public schools in Pennsylvania. PA Schools Work, a statewide coalition of educators, parents and advocates of which we are a proud member, has easy opportunities to make a difference.

Use this online tool to send a letter to your representatives in the General Assembly, urging them to pass Governor Shapiro's game-changing budget proposal for public education.

The PA Schools Work campaign will soon be holding virtual phone-banking sessions, talking to our neighbors about the importance of funding public schools--not just this year, but every year. Sign up as a potential volunteer here to learn about opportunities this spring make calls to Pennsylvanians. All volunteers will receive training and be connected with an easy-to-use automatic dialer, and you can make calls from your home!

On May 8, PA Schools Work will head to Harrisburg to meet with lawmakers to ensure that the General Assembly takes a first step toward constitutional school funding by enacting Governor Shapiro's full education funding proposal. If you are interested, sign up here. More information will be available closer to the event.

Left: Absentee ballot envelopes, via flickr user Brenda Anderson

In a disappointing decision for Pennsylvania voters, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on March 27 to uphold Pennsylvania's requirement that voters must mark the correct date on the outside of mail-in ballot envelopes in order for those votes to count, reversing an earlier District Court decision in a case brought by NAACP-PA. The case was sent back to the district court for consideration of an equal protection claim against the requirement, but the court rejected the argument that the requirement violates federal civil rights law.

In January, we represented SeniorLAW Center, an advocate for older Pennsylvanians, in an amicus brief in the case urging the court to strike down the handwritten date requirement. We argued that rejecting ballots for having an incorrect date--an immaterial clerical error that has no baring on a voter's eligibility--would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Older voters are more likely to rely on mail-in voting, and an analysis by the Philadelphia Board of elections found that 14% of ballot envelopes with missing our incorrect dates came from voters in their 80s.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patty Shwartz cited our amicus brief, noting that our brief "cited a report finding that the types of errors and omissions that occurred in this case disproportionately disenfranchised minority voters." The Public Interest Law Center will continue standing up for voters throughout 2024.