During the 2005-2006 school year, Panther Valley received $12,022 per student in local and state funding, while Lower Merion School District netted $26,700 per pupil.

This happened even though the PV school district has "an equalized tax millage" of 27.8 the 27th highest of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.Property rich Lower Merion raised revenue through taxes of approximately $23,709 locally per student four times more than Panther Valley with an equalized millage rate of just 14.7, almost half of Panther Valley's.By the state's own computation, Panther Valley needed $13,427 per student based on 2005-06 costs.The result has been teacher cuts and the curtailment of numerous extracurricular activities, including several sports.It's this funding deficiency that promped Panther Valley to join five other school districts and several other parties in a lawsuit against various state entities for "an irrational and inequitable school financing arrangement that drastically underfunds school districts."The suit also claims that the funding system presently in place "discriminates against children on the basis of the taxable property and household incomes in their districts."Property valuesand povertyThe lawsuit was filed Monday afternoon in the State's Commonwealth Court.The other plaintiffs are Shenandoah Valley School District, William Penn School District, School District of Lancaster, Greater Johnstown School District, and Wilkes-Barre Area School District.The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small School and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Pennsylvania State Conference, are also plaintiffs, along with several individuals.The defendants are the Pennsylvania Department of Education and numerous state officials including Gov. Tom Corbett.The suit says, "Total education expenditures per student now range from as little as $9,800 per student in school districts with low property values and incomes to more than $28,400 per student in districts with high property values and incomes, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's 2012-13 data."Dennis Kergick, superintendent of schools in the Panther Valley District, said the court action was started by former Superintendent Rosemary Porembo. Kergick has been superintendent since July 1.He supports the lawsuit. "I think everybody realizes that a few years ago we had big budget cuts from the (Department of Education)."He said the district has never recovered from the cuts.Kergick said the district has no library staff in any building and no computer teacher in the elementary school.He also feels that the funding deficit has a correlation to low rankings of the district in annual state reports."Some districts that did not score big had higher rates of poverty," he said. "A higher rate of poverty definitely has an impact."Despite the funding difficulties, Kergick said he feels the district's staff is working hard to provide local students with a good education. He said district graduates have attained great accomplishments.Funding formulaAccording to the lawsuit, several years ago, districts were able to rely on a funding formula consisting of state funds and federal stimulus money, which collectively increased funding for school districts by more than $800 million over three years."Beginning in 2011, however, respondents abandoned the funding formula, slashed funding to districts by more than $860 million, and passed legislation to severely restrict local communities from increasing local funding," the suit says."Meanwhile, the cost of meeting state academic standards continued to rise, opening a perilous and widening gap between the actual resources provided to school districts and the resources necessary to provide children in Pennsylvania an adequate education."By the numbersThe suit says, "The latest figures from the 2012-13 school year indicate that more than 300,000 of the approximately 875,000 students tested, including the children of the individual petitioners in this action, are receiving an inadequate education by respondents' own definition and are unable to meet state academic standards."Specifically, these students are unable to achieve proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of Standardized Assessment exams, which the General Assembly modified in 1999 to track state academic standards and measure student performance in reading, writing, math and science."According to the 2010 Census, Panther Valley School District served an estimated total population of 12,600. In 2012-13, approximately 64.56 percent of Panther Valley's students were considered economically disadvantaged, 17.17 percent required special education, and 1.15 percent were English-language learners. In addition, in the 2013-14 school year, 76.74 percent of students received either a free or reduced-price lunch."Panther Valley's adequacy target for the 2010-11 school year, determined by the legislature's formula, was $22.7 million. Panther Valley's actual spending for the 2008-2009 school year was $12.7 million, which means that it had an adequacy shortfall of $10 million."This resulted in a per pupil adequacy gap of $5,813, the fifth highest per student gap in the Commonwealth," the suit says.The suit continues, "Panther Valley has also been forced to completely cut a myriad of other programming, including all tutoring, graphic design, wood and metal shop, CPR training, first aid, driver's education theory, SAT preparation, yearbook, and newspaper."The district has eliminated funding for drama and musical productions and reduced its home economics and journalism course offerings. Panther Valley has also eliminated golf, swimming and cross country during the 2012-2013 school year, the suit says.