Philadelphia Charters for Excellence (PCE) On Facilities Funding Equity for Philadelphia Public Schools

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Philadelphia Charters for Excellence (PCE) represents more than 80 public charter school operators educating nearly 64,000 students: nearly 40 percent of Philadelphia’s public school population. These students are Philadelphia’s children. Their learning environments, safety, and access to quality facilities matter.

Yet today, a fundamental inequity persists in how Philadelphia funds school facilities.

While district-operated schools receive ongoing capital investment for buildings, maintenance, and modernization, public charter schools receive no direct facilities funding, despite serving a significant and growing share of the city’s students. As a result, charter schools must divert instructional dollars to cover rent, debt service, and essential repairs: these are funding pressures not faced in the same way by district schools.

This is not a governance debate or a sector dispute. It is a student equity issue.

Facilities funding disparities create unequal learning conditions for students based solely on the type of public school they attend. That inequity undermines long-term planning, strains school budgets, and places unnecessary barriers in the way of providing safe, modern, and stable learning environments.

PCE believes any serious conversation about public education equity in Philadelphia must include all public school students, regardless of school model. Solutions should be transparent, data-informed, and centered on students, not institutions. Our children deserve long lasting solutions, not temporary salves that fail to heal the wounds created by these funding gaps. 

We support the development of student-based, equitable facilities funding approaches that recognize enrollment realities and ensure public resources align with where students are actually being educated. Addressing this issue is essential to sustainability, accountability, and fairness across the city’s public education system.

PCE remains committed to engaging constructively with City Council, the School District of Philadelphia, the Mayor’s Office, and community stakeholders to advance policies that reflect the full public school landscape, and that honor our shared responsibility to Philadelphia’s students and families.

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Philadelphia Charters for Excellence