State House Democrats visit Berks to call for fair school funding.

Standing on the stairs in front of Reading High Tuesday afternoon, state Rep. Joanna McClinton made it quite clear why she and more than two dozen of her Democratic colleagues were there.

“We are here today because Pennsylvania House Democrats all year have been saying we have to put our children first, we have to fund our public schools fairly,” the House speaker said.

McClinton, of Philadelphia, said she’s known for a long time that Pennsylvania hasn’t been living up to that standard. And when a Commonwealth Court ruled in February that the state isn’t meeting its constitutional obligation when it comes to funding its most underserved schools, it didn’t come as a shock.

“We didn’t need an opinion from the Commonwealth Court to tell us what we already know,” she said. “And that is that our constitution tells us we have to provide every child a thorough and efficient education.”

McClinton and her colleagues came to Berks on Tuesday to demand just that.

They visited the county as part of a four-day “Save Our Schools” tour, a cross-state pilgrimage to visit schools and hold rallies calling for fair and equitable school funding. Berks was the second stop on the tour, following stops in Philadelphia Monday and being followed by ones in Centre County Wednesday and Allegheny County Thursday.

The group’s time in Berks included tours of two local schools: Wyomissing Junior/Senior High School and Reading High. While separated only by the Schuylkill River, the two represent quite different situations.

Wyomissing Junior/Senior High School has just 900 students, and the Wyomissing School District has just 1,850 total. Just over a third of those students struggle with poverty enough to qualify for free and reduced lunches.

The district’s $44 million budget is funded mostly through local property taxes, receiving only about 20% of its revenue from the state. That’s the lowest in the county, and among the 10 lowest in the state.

Things are much different on the eastern side of the river. There, Reading High plays host to about 5,000 students, and the Reading School District has a total of more than 18,000.

Because poverty is so pervasive in the district, all students qualify for free school meals.

And the majority of the district’s $426 million budget is funded by the state, representing more than 75% of the districts.

McClinton said that across the state there are situations just like what is seen in Berks, where neighboring urban and suburban districts have vastly different financial pictures based solely on strengths of their tax bases.

“And we can not allow the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to continue to allow some schools to be better funded because they have more property taxes,” she said.

Like McClinton, Rep. Jordan Harris said he didn’t need a court ruling to understand that some schools aren’t funded as well as others.

“That’s my lived experience,” the Democratic appropriations chairman from Philadelphia said.

Harris said he graduated from high school in South Philadelphia two decades ago. It was clear then that his school was underfunded, he said, and it’s clear today that it still is.

Harris said that underfunding schools steals opportunities from students, as well as the community. He there very well could be a student at Reading High right now who could one day find a cure for AIDS or cancer, if only given the chance.

“But we’re doing ourselves a disservice as a community, as a commonwealth and as a country because we’re not giving those young people the opportunity to live up to their potential,” he said.

Harris said House Democrats are ready to fix that, having already passed a state budget that includes significant increases in state funding. But that budget is currently being held up by Senate Republicans over their desire to fund a new school voucher program.

“The House Democrats are ready, we’re up to the task, we’re ready to do the work necessary,” Harris said. “We’re ready to put the resources where they need to be because our children, our community, our future depends on it.

“If you care about children, let’s fund our schools,” he added. “And lets do it today.”

Rep. Manny Guzman, a Reading High graduate who played host to his Democratic colleagues during Tuesday’s tour, also spoke about the urgency of equitable school funding.

“This is an S.O.S.,” he said. “Save our schools. I am shooting my flare gun into the air right now.”

Guzman said that House Democrats have done their job by passing a state budget, and chided Senate Republicans for the delay in getting the spending plan to the governor’s desk.

“It’s time for politicians up in Harrisburg to get off their behinds and get to work,” he said.

Guzman, who represents parts of Reading, said he impressed by the tour of Wyomissing Junior/Senior High School earlier in the day. He said it’s clear that the school is a welcoming place for students, one that offers them a bounty of choices and opportunities.

“I want the same opportunities they have right here for my kids in the Reading School District,” he said.

Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, who represents parts of both the Wyomissing and Reading school districts, also spoke during Tuesday’s rally.

“The time is now, every child deserves the same investment,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where you live or what language you speak or where you come from.

Cepeda-Freytiz urged those attending the rally to keep pressure on their elected leaders to take action on fair school funding. And, she promised, she and her colleagues will do the same.

“We’re here to fight for you, we’re here to fight with you,” she said.

Dr. Noahleen Betts, Reading School Board president, said that her district is counting on the about $288 million that they’re slated to get from the state this school year.

“As the third largest school district in the state, 18,000 students, we need fair funding and we need the financial support from the state to give our students, all of our students, the adequate resources and education that they so deserve,” she said.

And with the start of that school year quickly approaching, she said, its critical that the state budget passes so that money can begin to flow.

“Give our schools, give our students, the money they need,” she said.

It wasn’t just politicians and school leaders who called for school funding equity on Tuesday, but also voices from the front lines.

Amy Hicks, a Daniel Boone Middle School teacher and Pennsylvania State Education Association regional representative, also called at the unfairness of the state’s education funding system.

“I can tell you what professionals have known for a long time and what the recent decision by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has made clear: Inequality is a major problem in our schools, all of them,” she said. “And something must be done about it.”

Hicks said that public education is a promise to local communities.

“A promise that we will support and serve each child — each child, hard stop — equally and create a welcoming environment for anyone, no matter their background, no matter their zip code, no matter their socioeconomic status,” she said. “Yet, everyday we witness the glaring disparities that persist in our schools. They impeded the potential of countless young minds and perpetuate a cycle of inequality.”

Hicks said that those disparities are made clear by visiting schools across the state.

“It is unacceptable that some students are forced to attend schools that lack the proper resource, have crumbling infrastructure and are staffed with underpaid professionals,” she said. “Meanwhile, other students around the commonwealth enjoy state-of-the-art facilities and a myriad of educational opportunities.

“It’s just not fair.”

House Republicans fire back

In response to the Democrat’s tour stop in Berks, House Republicans issued a statement Tuesday claiming their counterparts are putting “systems over students and institutions over individuals.”

The statement showed support for a proposed voucher program that would use state money to allow students in the state’s worst-performing schools to attend private schools.

“Instead of focusing on saving our schools, House Democrats should join with Republicans in both chambers in saving our students,” House Republican spokesperson Jason Gottesman said in the statement. “By doubling down on an unconstitutionally broken public school system to the exclusion of transformational change and a child-first, family-focused education experience, House Democrats clearly have a bad case of partisan tunnel vision that leaves most Pennsylvanians by the wayside.”

Gottetsman said in the statement that the Commonwealth Court decision on the inequity in school funding is actually a signal that idea like a voucher program should be pursued.

“The Commonwealth Court opinion on our public education system made it plain that there is room in Pennsylvania for new and innovative ways to educate students, including school choice, in addition to the traditional public school setting,” he said. “House Democrats need to take their partisan blinders off, stop governing to the next election and finally join us in putting the number one stakeholder group in education— Pennsylvania’s students — first in the discussion about improving Pennsylvania’s education environment.”