Title
Recognizing and honoring the Education Law Center-PA on its 50th anniversary for its outstanding contributions and lasting impact to ensure access to quality public education for all children in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania.
Body
WHEREAS, For the past 50 years, the steadfast advocacy of the Education Law Center-PA (ELC) has profoundly shaped statewide education law and policy and improved the lives of thousands of underserved students in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania, including children living in poverty, children of color, children with disabilities, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, multilingual learners, LGBTQ+ students, and children at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities; and
WHEREAS, The Education Law Center-PA seeks to further address the root causes of inequity and discrimination in education through three key priorities: ensuring equal access to quality education, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and fighting for fair education funding. ELC advances its mission and expertly addresses educational barriers through direct representation, impact litigation, community engagement, strategic communications, and advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. ELC established its expertise in education law in its early years through landmark cases aimed at providing immediate relief to individual students in Philadelphia while advancing transformative, systems-level reforms that benefit thousands of underserved students; and
WHEREAS, For the past 50 years, the Education Law Center-PA has been a trusted resource for families, child-serving professionals, and advocates in Philadelphia, providing rights-based information, trainings, and advice regarding public education issues. Today, the Education Law Center-PA is a nationally recognized leader in educational equity, supporting over 1,000 individual families and child-serving professionals each year and impacting thousands more through systemic advocacy and impact litigation; and
WHEREAS, The Education Law Center-PA has long advocated for Pennsylvania to address constitutional deficiencies in how it funds our public schools. As a result of ELC’s litigation, the court ruled in 2023 that the state’s school funding system is unconstitutional, ordered lawmakers to remedy decades of inequity in school funding, and declared that education is a "fundamental right”; and
WHEREAS, The Education Law Center-PA’s remarkable accomplishments over the past 50 years are the result of the unwavering vision, tenacity, and commitment of hundreds of champions, including former executive directors Janet Stotland, Len Rieser, and Rhonda Brownstein; current executive director Deborah Gordon Klehr; board members past and present; employees; clients; and supportive education advocates, City Council members, and other elected officials; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor and recognize the 50th anniversary of the Education Law Center-PA for their continued advancement of education justice for generations of Philadelphians to come.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an engrossed copy of this resolution shall be presented to Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center-PA, as evidence of the sincere respect and admiration of this legislative body.
End