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November 12, 2025 — Earlier today, Pennsylvania lawmakers finally passed a one-year state budget that continues the Commonwealth’s progress toward fairly funding schools, as required by the landmark Commonwealth Court ruling that mandates adequate and equitable funding for public schools.
After months of delay that left schools and families in limbo, this budget brings clarity and a measure of relief to educators, students, and communities across Pennsylvania. Today, lawmakers affirmed that the Commonwealth remains on a path toward a fairly funded public education system that is better positioned to address long-standing racial and structural inequities. This is another important step forward — one that must be followed by continued commitment and expanded investments until every student, in every community, has the opportunity to learn in a well-resourced, high-quality public school.
Education highlights in this year’s state budget include the following:
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$565M in additional adequacy funding, ensuring essential resources go to districts and students that need them most;
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$105M in additional basic education funding;
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$40M in additional special education funding;
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$125M in dedicated school facilities funds;
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$78M in net savings as a result of cyber charter reforms; and
- Increases in early childhood funding, including $41.7M for Early Intervention.
ELC-PA, along with our partners in the PA Schools Work coalition, have worked tirelessly for many years to make public school funding a priority for the Commonwealth. This work has included:
- ELC-PA’s role as co-counsel in the landmark 2023 Commonwealth Court decision, which instructed lawmakers to work with petitioners to “devise a plan to address the constitutional deficiencies identified by the Court.” These deficiencies included glaring gaps in funding for early education, lack of sufficient, qualified public school staff, and a need for new investments in safe and adequate facilities. This new system must provide all students with a “meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.”
- Intensive advocacy leading up to the 2024-25 budget, which acknowledged and began the work of filling huge adequacy gaps, including adequacy supplements to underfunded districts, and much more.
- The passage of this year’s budget: for the second consecutive year, bipartisan support has made adequacy funding a non-negotiable priority, directing critical resources to schools most affected by decades of underfunding. This continued investment moves the Commonwealth closer to fulfilling the constitutional mandate articulated by the landmark court ruling.
You can find more budget details here. And you can find media coverage about the budget passage here and here.
This work is far from over. Lawmakers have committed to providing adequacy supplements, but the constitutional mandate has not been met. Getting there will require increases in basic education, special education, and continued adequacy supplements to underfunded schools – as well as additional investments to support safe, modern buildings. Lawmakers must also enact additional cyber charter school funding reform and adequately fund Pre-K to build a public education system that meets the needs of every child, in every community, every year.
All of this is required so that every school can provide basic core resources that matter to students – including highly qualified professionals, modern technology, and up-to-date curriculum. Pennsylvania must ensure that adequacy funds reach classrooms quickly to close opportunity gaps and deliver tangible improvements for students.
We thank Governor Shapiro for maintaining his commitment to full and fair public education funding, and we applaud legislative leaders in both parties who set aside political differences to prioritize students.
And we are grateful to each of you for changing the narrative in Pennsylvania to prioritize adequacy and equity in our school funding system. We are proud of how far we have come and eager to work together to finish the job.
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