This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Church groups seeking a radical solution to the large funding disparities among school districts are taking their message to Pennsylvania’s Capitol, even as other advocates continue to support an incremental approach to restoring education funding.
The demonstrators note the bipartisan support for a new funding formula that is widely considered to more fairly divide state aid for schools. They want the formula to apply to all state spending for schools.
But they are in the minority.
Longtime education advocates who lobbied for a new funding formula say applying it to the entire education budget would leave about two-thirds of school districts with less money.
"That is just not politically possible to get anything through like that," said Jim Buckheit, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. "And it would also be a shock to those school districts. They would have to make massive cuts to their programs and staff, and those students in those districts would hurt."