The financial crisis in the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is well known to readers of this blog.  A post in early October covered the state appointed School Reform Commission’s cancellation of the teachers’ contract to save money on the health plan (along with a review of cuts to Pennsylvania’s state’s school funding that have crippled the school district over time).  Another post after election day attributed Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s defeat in his bid for reelection to long-standing failure across the state to support public education.

But the election of a new governor will not directly address the problems of the state’s poorest school districts.  To secure some relief, on November 10, plaintiffs from across the state filed a major lawsuit charging that Pennsylvania’s school funding violates not only the education clause but also the equal protection clause of the state constitution.

The Education Law Center of Pennsylvania describes…