City of Philadelphia - File #: 110462

• File #: 110462
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 5/26/2011
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 6/2/2011
• Title: Authorizing a request to the Law Department to represent City Council in a lawsuit or lawsuits against the Governor of Pennsylvania and any other appropriate State officials, challenging the legality of the funding for public education in the Commonwealth and particularly in Philadelphia, and seeking to compel the Commonwealth to carry out its constitutional duty to provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education; and, if the Law Department declines to render such service to City Council, authorizing the retention of outside counsel to provide such services.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Clarke, Councilmember Sanchez, Councilmember Green, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Krajewski, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember Tasco

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
6/2/2011	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED	Pass	16:1
5/26/2011	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed On Next Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass

Title
Authorizing a request to the Law Department to represent City Council in a lawsuit or lawsuits against the Governor of Pennsylvania and any other appropriate State officials, challenging the legality of the funding for public education in the Commonwealth and particularly in Philadelphia, and seeking to compel the Commonwealth to carry out its constitutional duty to provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education; and, if the Law Department declines to render such service to City Council, authorizing the retention of outside counsel to provide such services.

Body
WHEREAS, Governor Corbett has proposed draconian, radical, and unprecedented cuts in education throughout the Commonwealth, including more than $1.6 billion for public schools and state-supported universities and colleges; and

WHEREAS, The Governor's proposal, if enacted into law, would cut deeply and irrevocably into the budgets at all levels of education; and

WHEREAS, School districts across the Commonwealth - especially those that serve the poorest populations - face the prospect of laying off key educators and other staff, terminating essential programs, ending full-day kindergarten despite overwhelming evidence of its value, closing buildings, or raising local taxes to offset the steep cuts in state support proposed by the Governor; and

WHEREAS, The proposed cuts for school districts across the Commonwealth hurt the poorest districts the most. In general, the state's proposed education cuts disproportionately harm those Pennsylvania school districts with the greatest proportion of low income families -- those who need effective public schools the most and can least afford to replace lost state education dollars with higher local taxes. The top five school districts with the largest proposed cuts are Chester-Upland (Delaware County), with a proposed cut of $2,633 per Average Daily Membership (ADM) and poverty concentration of 42.67...