Even though Pennsylvania invests in K-12 education, it distributes those resources inequitably, according to an American Institutes for Research study.

“Revenue and spending across Pennsylvania school districts fails to meet basic equity standards, with significant numbers of districts serving high-need populations having substantially lower per-pupil spending than surrounding districts serving more advantaged populations,” the study, released Friday, stated.

The unevenness in spending is so large that there is a difference of about $3,000 per child between the total revenue that the poorest and richest districts spent. That increased from $2,000 in 2010.

The study quoted an Education Law Center report card giving Pennsylvania an A for effort, including local spending, but a D for funding distribution.

The study rated the average level of funding in Pennsylvania at average among states in the region and above average nationally.

It stated that Pennsylvania is “consistently among the most regressively funded education systems in the nation, meaning higher poverty districts have systematically lower revenues per pupil than lower poverty districts.”

The study came the same week the Campaign for Fair Education Funding, a coalition of more than 40 business, education and community groups, met at the Capitol to campaign for fair and predictable funding for K-12 education. Campaign manager Kathy Manderino said she would read the study over the weekend before commenting.

The William Penn Foundation of Philadelphia commissioned the study.

Elliot Weinbaum, program director of the Great Learning program area for the foundation, said the group is committed to ensuring educational opportunities for all children and the study was done “to better understand the role that the state’s school finance system plays in making that goal possible …

“We hope that it will be useful to Pennsylvanians as we work toward creating the system we all want, one in which every child can succeed.”

The report, titled “Educational Equity, Adequacy and Equal Opportunity in the Commonwealth: An Evaluation of Pennsylvania’s School Finance System,” can be found on the Web at air.org.

Bruce Baker, an education professor at Rutgers University, and Jesse Levin, AIR principal researcher, education program, wrote it.

Eleanor Chute: echute@post-gazette.com.

First Published: October 10, 2014, 6:09 p.m.
Updated: October 11, 2014, 3:29 a.m.