Note: this event has been postponed until further notice. Stay tuned for more updates on our school funding case on our social media and on our website.
Join us at La Colombe in Fishtown for a school funding briefing, and a chance to meet education advocate, Todd Carmichael, La Colombe’s CEO and co-founder.
Pennsylvania has one of the largest funding gaps in the country between low-wealth and high-wealth school districts. Pennsylvania is also ranked 46th in the share of funding that comes from the state, leaving local taxpayers to take on rising costs. Right now, we are representing six school districts across the state in a lawsuit that takes on this inequitable and inadequate school funding system. How did we get here? At the briefing, you will learn the basics of education funding and how it works in Pennsylvania, as well as ways you can get involved in advocacy for fully funded public education. Hear the latest on updates on our groundbreaking case against state legislative leaders—tentatively scheduled for trial this fall—and what to expect moving forward.
Afterward, you will have a chance to meet Law Center attorneys working on this landmark case, Todd Carmichael, and other school funding advocates and supporters from around the city.
Todd Carmichael
CEO and Co-Founder, La Colombe Coffee
At the age of 17, Todd Carmichael left the farms of Eastern Washington with a box of clothes, $200 and an unrelenting drive for adventure. Today he sits on top of one of the most celebrated and fastest growing coffee companies in the country, La Colombe based in Philadelphia, PA.
Todd is a passionate supporter of public education; it was public schools that gave him the foundation that he’s built everything he’s accomplished. Working with the Education Law Center, Todd has gone to the Pennsylvania Capitol to make the argument on behalf of the business community that funding every school in the state – including in Philadelphia – is a necessity for businesses to be able to survive. And last year, when a local Pennsylvania school district threatened to put children in foster care over unpaid lunch bills, Todd stepped in to erase the debt and worked with the district to ensure that parents would never be threatened like this again.
