Pa. schools group files suit over halted funding

The suit claims it's illegal and unconstitutional to cut off schools from funding without a final budget.

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

Gov. Wolf’s administration and the legislature are facing a lawsuit from Pennsylvania schools over the budget impasse’s freeze on education funding.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association, which represents each of the state’s 500 school districts, filed the legal challenge Friday in Commonwealth Court.

The suit claims it’s illegal and unconstitutional to cut off the state’s schools from their funding when there’s no final budget, especially when other programs and state employees continue to be paid.

"We expect, no matter what is going on with the state budget, that there is fire protection. We expect that the police are there. We expect that the prisons are secure," said PSBA director Nathan Mains. "I think that we should expect that children aren’t stuck in the middle of a budget crisis and that our public schools are going to not only be able to remain open, but to be effective."

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks