Five months ago the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the courts can get involved in school funding issues and remanded PA’s school funding lawsuit back to Commonwealth Court for a full trial.

Ever since that decision, Republican leaders in Harrisburg have worked to slow the case down.

On Wednesday, March 7, at its courtroom in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court will hear oral argument on preliminary objections and a motion to dismiss the lawsuit made by Representative Turzai and Senator Scarnati.

Representative Turzai is arguing that education is not an important right under the Pennsylvania Constitution and Senator Scarnati is arguing that the new education formula has solved the funding problem, even though it applies to only two percent of all school funding.

The Court will take the argument into consideration and sometime after the hearing, determine next steps for the case.

While Rep. Turzai and Sen. Scarnati work to delay the trial of the school funding lawsuit, tens of thousands of children in every corner of PA continue to try to learn in under-resourced schools without basic resources like textbooks and teachers.

You can help get this case moving forward by demonstrating that Pennsylvanians care about adequate, equitable, and constitutional funding for schools and believe that PA’s schoolchildren deserve their day in court.

You can help in two ways:

1. If you live near Philadelphia, come to the oral argument on Wednesday, March 7. A large presence of parents and community members at the argument will show the court that people care about this case and send a message that they need to move the case forward as quickly as possible.

Click here for full details and to RSVP.

2. If you can’t make it to Philadelphia, send a letter to your state lawmakers urging them to tell Representative Turzai and Senator Scarnati to abandon their baseless claims and let Pennsylvania’s school children have their day in court. A child is in each grade once. She can never get back that lost time.

Click HERE to send a letter to your state lawmakers.

This lawsuit is designed to secure a long-term solution to the school funding crisis, so that all Pennsylvania children receive an adequate education, no matter where they live. Help us demonstrate that Pennsylvania citizens think it is time to fix our state’s inadequate, inequitable, and unconstitutional school funding system.