Category: Speech

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 9, 2025. This is roughly what our executive director, Marc Stier, said on Wednesday, February 7, 2025, at the “50/50/1” event on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg. More than 400 people were there to protest the Trump administration’s march towards fascism. It’s great to see at least four hundred of you here today. I know a lot of people were afraid to come to this event because they didn’t know who sponsored it. So, I applaud you for joining us. It’s going to take courage to fight back against the terrible things happening in Washington, and you are showing that today. In my remarks today I want to connect the dots between the four things the Trump administration is doing publicly and one other thing that’s happening mostly behind closed doors in Washington. It is the far less public thing that ultimately… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on January 16, 2025. January 16, 2025 by Marc Stier I’m here to call on the General Assembly to fill the remaining $4 billion gap needed to adequately fund our schools in four years. Let me explain why PA Schools Work believes this is a reasonable goal. The education budget adopted for the current 2024–25 fiscal year accomplished three very important things. And, unusually for a state budget, the most important accomplishment may be less well known than the less important ones. First, most people know that the state added more than $1 billion to the state’s support for K–12 education. This is the largest one-year investment in the state’s history. Second, many people know that this budget shifted the paradigm for state funding of education. Instead of directing most of the new money through the fair funding formula benefitting all districts, the bulk… Continue reading

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on May 8, 2024.   May 8, 2024 The data is clear. The Courts have ruled. The defendants in the case didn’t appeal the decision. This Commonwealth has systematically discriminated against kids in low-income, Black, and brown communities for decades. How can anyone look the kids and parents of this commonwealth in the eye and say, “I oppose fully and fairly funding your education”? The only answer the opponents have given is “we can’t afford it.” Yet there is $14 billion in the state’s bank accounts that would cover at least the first four years of the program, while leaving billions in the rainy day fund. To that, the opponents say we can’t use that money for recurring expenses. Yet yesterday they voted for a proposal that would create a $2.7 billion reduction in recurring revenues and soon use up the entire surplus. So… Continue reading