DN Editorial: Semisweet

GOV. CORBETT'S announcement that he won't appeal Tuesday's federal court ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriages adds a sweetness to the victory for all those - including the majority of Pennsylvanians - who support gay marriage.

While Corbett's decision was probably informed by what will likely be an uphill battle to his re-election, it should be lauded regardless, especially since it was less than a year ago that he likened same-sex marriage to incest.

The decision is clearly a victory for equality in our often less-than-progressive state. But there is a sad irony in this victory, especially coming as it does on the heels of the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. That Supreme Court decision that struck down the notion of "separate but equal" education for black and white students was a landmark civil-rights case that effectively ended school segregation and should have been a victory for education equality.

Sixty years later, however, the reality tells a different story, especially in Philadelphia. Right now, the School District of Philadelphia faces yet another financial crisis, with deficits that could turn schools into "empty shells," in the words of its own superintendent. The frequent knee-jerk reaction to yet another Philadelphia school-funding crisis is "we're already throwing too much money at these schools."

Actually, no we're not.

In 2007, the Legislature commissioned a "costing out" study to determine how much it would take to adequately fund education; it found that the average statewide gap between the per-pupil funding and what was actually needed was $2,400 per student. In Philadelphia, that gap yawned to $4,184 per student. While attempts were made to rectify this gap, the more recent trend has been further cuts - and those cuts have impacted the poorest students. According to a new study by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, the state funding cuts have meant $1,351 less per student in Philadelphia, while the cuts hit wealthy suburban districts at the rate of only $36 to $59 per student.

Most striking: the fact that Philadelphia educates 12 percent of Pennsylvanian students but has gotten hit with 35 percent of the statewide funding cuts.

The point is that in this state, wealthier districts get more money, poor districts get less. And in Philadelphia, with 85.6 percent minority students (52.8 percent black), that means that the racial injustice in education that Brown v. Board of Education sought to rectify continues.

If we really believe in equal opportunity for all, we need to take the injustices in education funding far more seriously.

Speaking of poverty . . .

Last week, the Daily News presented a timeline of more than four centuries of poverty in the city (see it at philly.com/tappedout). Another great reminder of the city's history for those of us wishing to avoid repeating it airs on 6ABC at 7:30 tonight in the sixth episode of Sam Katz's documentary series "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment" covering the 17th century.