Lawyers for the school districts argued in court that Pennsylvania’s school funding system relies disproportionately on local property taxes, helping to widen the gap between rich and poor districts.
Shapiro is scheduled to unveil his first budget plan Tuesday when he speaks to a joint session of the Legislature. Any plan must get through the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate. Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans — who opposed the school districts' lawsuit — have not said whether they will appeal the judge's ruling.
“I think we’re all looking forward to hearing what he says in his budget speech, so we have a little bit better sense of what he’s been hearing and what it is that he’s thinking,” said Katrina Robson, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which helped represent the school districts in the suit.