PFT, AFTPA, AFT FILE SECOND AMICUS BRIEF IN LANDMARK SCHOOL FUNDING TRIAL

PHILADELPHIA—For the second time, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania (AFTPA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) filed an amicus "friend of the court" brief in support of the landmark school funding trial.

Access our newly filed brief here. Access our 2015 brief here.

Since before the trial's inception and throughout the years of preparation and court hearings, our unions and members have been staunch advocates for the fair funding of public education. Indeed, collectively with the plaintiffs, lawyers, advocates, and so many partners, we have made the moral, and now clearly defined legal, case for our young people to receive a thorough and efficient public education.

Sixty-eight years ago on May 17th, the decision was rendered in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education SCOTUS case, and the highest court in the land ruled that separate could never be equal-- that segregated schools are unconstitutional. During the case, the AFT was the only labor union to file an amicus brief in support of this position. 

And though we have made gains, we have so much further to go. Our children are still learning every day in schools that are decades older than the national average and in facilities that are not only physically inadequate, they are often toxic. Our young people are continually expected to do more with less-- to make do with devastating budget cuts, too few counselors, lack of school nurses, not enough support staff. 

These arguments are laid bare in the arguments set forth by the plaintiffs and their attorneys and in the collection of powerful amicus briefs siding with the plaintiffs. Still today, our young people, the majority of whom are Black and brown and the majority of whom are experiencing poverty, are shortchanged. Year after year, the state legislature has failed to deliver on its moral and constitutional obligation to provide our schools with adequate resources for our children to thrive. 

Our newly filed amicus brief outlines the following case as a supplement to our previously filed brief.

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