Church Member Beth Logue's latest letter to the Editor in the Philadelphia Inquirer

Church member Beth Logue has been working with POWER Interfaith's Education Justice to advocate that every child in Pennsylvania have access to a good, justly-funded education. (Learn more about POWER's campaign here.)

On January 11, 2024, The Philadelphia Inquirer published her letter to the editor in requesting Gov. Shapiro to adquately fund our schools. The letter is copied below (and you can read the original here).

Money matters

It’s great that Pennsylvania legislators have passed a law for the 2026-27 school year requiring high schools to provide a course in personal financial literacy in order to graduate. Back in the ‘70s, when I was in high school, I thought a class like that should be required. However, as is usual with mandates from the legislature, there is no plan that accompanies it to say where the money will come from. The wealthier districts will figure out how to fund this without cutting back in some other area, and the poorer districts will likely scramble to make it work by not fixing broken toilets and leaking roofs, or by overtaxing a teacher who will have to squeeze it into an already full curriculum. As we wait for the Basic Education Funding Commission report on how to fix Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional school funding system, I hope Gov. Josh Shapiro and all our legislators will do the right thing and come up with a plan to adequately and equitably fund our schools starting with the 2024-25 school year.

Beth Logue, POWER Interfaith Education Justice Team, Philadelphia, elizabeth.logue44@gmail.com