Education Law Center
Newsletter | January 2015
Pew Report on School Funding Cites ELC's Work
 
The Pew Charitable Trusts' Jan. 15 research report on school funding formulas and urban school districts cites ELC's national research on school funding formulas. 

The report notes that Pennsylvania is one of three states that lacks a consistent formula for allocating and distributing education dollars. 

The report also correctly points out that a statewide school funding formula alone does not address the educational needs of students in school districts such as Philadelphia, which have an enormous percentage of students in poverty.  Overall state funding on education is equally important, according to the report. 

In fact, per-pupil funding for Philadelphia schools is well below the average of other urban districts, trailing Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit, according to the report.

Read the full report.
Civil Rights Project Reports on Increasing Racial Segregation in PA's Schools
"Is Opportunity Knocking or Slipping Away? Racial Diversity and Segregation in Pennsylvania," a new report from UCLA's Civil Rights Project provides an in-depth examination of school segregation and its impact on communities throughout the state.

The report authors, including esteemed civil rights scholar Gary Orfield, write, "As a slow-growth increasingly diverse state with an aging population, Pennsylvania needs to think hard about its continued passive acceptance of segregated and inferior schooling, and about the spread of destructive racial patterns from urban areas into growing sectors of suburbia and small cities."
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OP-ED: Speaking up for parents and vulnerable students in York City

By Maura McInerney, Senior Staff Attorney, Education Law Center - Jan. 13, 2015 - York Dispatch

In the two years In two years since being appointed Chief Recovery Officer for the York City School District, David Meckley has produced nothing more than an ill-conceived privatization scheme to convert the 7,500-student school district into charter schools run by the for-profit company, Charter Schools USA.

This massive overhaul of an entire public school district is unprecedented in Pennsylvania, and there is little data anywhere to support its promised success. Perhaps most alarming is the failure to consider how the schools will serve students with serious educational needs, particularly those with disabilities.

Read the full op-ed.
Drexel Law Students Joining School Discipline Advocacy Service.

The Education Law Center and the School Discipline Advocacy Service are currently training Drexel University Kline School of Law students to become advocates for Philadelphia's at-risk youth and their families.

SDAS, an ELC partner, is a law student-led organization advocating for fair discipline on behalf of students in the School District of Philadelphia and area charter schools.

In addition to Drexel Law students, SDAS draws its trained advocates from students at Temple University Beasley School of Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and provides services free of charge.