Play about Pennsylvania school funding issues comes to Lancaster County – LancasterOnline – October 2, 2015

The drama of Pennsylvania’s school funding crisis is coming to Lancaster.

Literally.

“School Play,” a theater production created by three Philadelphia artists, will be performed here next week as part of a 12-stop tour across the state.

The play, which is billed as a “funny, sad and unsettling” look at school funding issues in Pennsylvania, will be staged at McCaskey East High School, 1051 Lehigh Ave., on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. Tickets are free.

Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a Philadelphia-based child advocacy organization commissioned the play, which premiered in Philadelphia in April. The nonprofit also is sponsoring the statewide tour of the show.

Anthony Hopkins, communications director for Public Citizens for Children and Youth, called the production a “live documentary.” The playwrights conducted more than 100 interviews with Pennsylvania school students, teachers, parents, administrators and others. Testimonies from that process were transformed into a script.

“The play is their words. There’s no embellishments by the playwrights,” said Hopkins.

The play does have a message, though: Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unfair.

For instance, said Hopkins, one student in the play describes his school’s Wii video game room, while another talks about a school with only one working toilet.

Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states that do not have a predictable school-funding formula based on student enrollment and student demographics. Inequities in public school funding were a focus of political advocacy in the state in the past year. Education funding was considered the number-one issue in Gov. Tom Wolf’s defeat of Tom Corbett last November, and a bipartisan legislative commission toured the state hearing recommendations for ways to fairly distribute money to schools.

Public Citizens for Children and Youth is part of the Campaign for Fair Education Funding, a coalition that supported the commission’s proposal for a new school funding formula, which was issued in June. Movement on the proposal has been hamstrung by the state budget impasse. With its tour of “School Play,” Public Citizens for Children and Youth hopes to revive the conversation.

“We need fair and adequate funding for all our schools, regardless of ZIP code,” said Hopkins.

The cast of the production is made up of Philadelphia-based actors, but Hopkins said his organization hopes others will host readings of the play with their families and communities. The script is available for free at this page.


LancasterOnline – October 2, 2015 – Read article online