PENNSYLVANIA

Constitutional Clause/Language

“The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the commonwealth.” Penn. Const. art. 3, s. 14.

Major Court Decision: Marrero v. Pennsylvania, 709 A.2d 956 (Penn. 1998).

Result: School funding method not overturned

Summary: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that school children are not guaranteed to a “specific level of quality” in education.  The court also held  that the constitution’s requirement of “through and efficient” is met so long as the legislature’s chosen funding method has a “reasonable relation” to providing for the maintenance of the public school system.

Key Quotes:

“Based on legislative history, specifically, the constitution of 1874 and the constitutional referendum of 1968 (Article III, section 14), the court determined that  Art. 3, section 14 of the Pennsylvania constitution places an affirmative duty upon the general assembly to provide for the through and efficient system of public education... However, this mandate does not confer an individual right upon each student to particular level or quality of education... Instead, imposes a constitutional duty upon the legislature to provide for the maintenance of a through and efficient system of pubic schools throughout the commonwealth” Id. at 962.

“The people have directed that the cause of public education cannot be fettered, but must evolute or retrograde with succeeding generations as the times prescribe. Therefore all matters, whether they be contracts bearing upon education, or legislative determinations of school policy or the scope of educational activity, everything directly related to the maintenance of a ‘thorough and efficient system of public schools,’ must at all times be subject to future legislative control.”  Id. at 964.

“As long as the legislative scheme for financing public education ‘has a reasonable relation’ to providing for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of schools, the general assembly has fulfilled its constitutional duty to the public school students of Philadelphia.  The legislature has enacted a financing scheme reasonably related to the maintenance and support of a system of public education in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania” Id. at 965.