The spending gap disparity between rich and poor school districts in Pennsylvania was exposed on both the state and national fronts last week.

Last Friday, during a conference call with reporters, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan reported that data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that high-poverty school districts around the nation spent 15.6 percent less than those in the group with the least poverty.The news was especially grim in Pennsylvania, where the spending disparity was a whopping 33 percent. That was much larger than the next-closest state, Vermont, which had a spending difference of 18 percent. Three others Illinois, Missouri and Virginia had gaps of 17 percent between the top and bottom schools.The state is used to seeing bad grades on funding inequality. Last July, another study published online by the Center for American Progress showed Pennsylvania and Illinois had the worst inequalities in school finance.Three months ago, an AP report blamed the widening disparity between the wealthy and poor districts to the deep budget-balancing cuts in state aid under the previous administration and pension obligation payments that came due.Educational funding was a centerpiece issue that helped Gov. Tom Wolf unseat incumbent Tom Corbett in the last election. Corbett had defended his position on education funding by stating that it's more important how money is spent rather than how much is spent.Wolf's new budget plan calls for a redistribution of the burden for funding schools to provide some property tax relief. It would lower school property taxes by raising the state's 3.07 percent personal income tax to 3.7 percent, raising the state share of education funding to over the 50 percent.The school funding battle also reached the judicial front last week when a Commonwealth Court judge heard a challenge on funding inequities brought by six school districts, including Panther Valley in Carbon County.While the state has established strict academic standards, the lawsuit states it has failed to provide equal resources for students who must meet them. The plaintiffs point out that per-pupil spending ranges from less than $10,000 in districts with low property values and incomes to more than $28,000 in those on the higher property value and income scales.Support for changing the way state education funds are distributed has been building from major education leadership organizations. Last year, Jim Buckheit, executive director of the The Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators said the funding gap had "exploded," and that we haven't had a fair way of funding education since 1991. He said it limits our children's futures and it has hurt our state's economy.Buckheit also correctly points out that state legislators must treat public education as a bipartisan issue that will benefit all children, regardless of where they live and attend school.The school funding disparity has been a national embarrassment for the state for far too long.By JIM ZBICKtneditor@tnonline.com