[JURIST] A group of six school districts, seven parents and two advocacy groups filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] Monday against the Pennsylvania Department of Education [official website] and others accusing them of not providing students an adequate education and discriminating against students because of their locality. The petitioners claim that the Department of Education has violated the Education Clause (Article III, Section 14) and Equal Protection (Article III, Section 32) clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution [text] by not funding schools properly and by causing schools to resort to property taxes for other sources of funding, therefore discriminating against economically disadvantaged localities the complaint states. The complaint specifically states:

Respondents have established state academic standards that define precisely what an adequate education entails. But rather than equip children to meet those standards and participate meaningfully in the economic, civic, and social life of their communities, Respondents have adopted an irrational and inequitable school financing arrangement that drastically underfunds school districts across the Commonwealth and discriminates against children on the basis of the taxable property and household incomes in their districts.

The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia issued a press release [text, PDF] summarizing the case and asking Pennsylvanians to contact their elected officials to resolve this issue.

Monday’s challenge is the latest in a string of lawsuits concerning education throughout the US. A Texas judge ruled [JURIST report] in August that that state’s education budget cuts were unconstitutional. In the same month an advocacy group in New York challenged [JURIST report] that state’s teacher tenure laws. In June the Los Angeles Superior Court struck down [JURIST report] California’s teacher tenure system.