Category: Education

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Statement on Need to Pivot to Reinvestment in Wake of Consolidation of PASSHE Schools

  By Higher Education, PA Budget and Policy Center, Statements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 21, 2021 Contact: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennbpc.org Statement on need to pivot to reinvestment in wake of consolidation of PASSHE schools By Marc Stier The decision by the PASSHE board of governors to adopt a radical consolidation plan is disappointing and may ultimately be self-defeating. It accommodates, and perpetuates, a failed 40-year disinvestment in public higher education in Pennsylvania. This disinvestment threatens opportunity for many Pennsylvanians and will weaken the state’s future economy, especially in the regions anchored by PASSHE campuses. To avoid these consequences, state lawmakers need to pivot now to a reinvestment strategy, capitalizing on the federal resources in the American Rescue Plan and likely to be part of federal infrastructure legislation. Higher education remains a critical path to both individual and communal success and happiness. Yet devastating cutbacks in state funding have made the cost of attending four-year state universities, relative to median income,… Continue reading

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A Statement on HB 1776: Property School Tax Freeze Is a Wrong Move for PA

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA

Originally published by KRC-PBPC here. Pennsylvania, like every other state in the country, faces an unprecedented budget crisis at both the state and local levels. It is so unusual that we do not really know how severe it will be. There is still great uncertainty about how far we will fall. And there is also uncertainty about how quickly we will be able to climb out of the hole in state and local revenues caused by the necessary health regulations put in place to limit the impact of COVID-19 on our lives and our health care system. Estimates of the two-year decline in state revenues range from $3 to $7 billion. A recent analysis suggests that the decline in school districts’ revenues could range between $850 million and $1 billion for FY 21. This is a time for all of us, in government office and outside of it, to think… Continue reading

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Rethinking Philadelphia Taxes to Fund Education

  By Education, K-12 Education in PA, Philadelphia

Last year, Mayor Jim Kenney boldly called for the School Reform Commission (SRC) to be disbanded and for control over our schools to be returned to the city. In doing so, he took on the responsibility to pay for schools at a time when growing deficits are expected over the next five years. We at PBPC have long argued that the education of Philadelphians shouldn’t be a responsibility of the city alone. Not just Philadelphia but the entire commonwealth suffers because the state share of education funding has fallen from almost 50% to less than 35% of total funding. But while we struggle to encourage Harrisburg to meet its responsibilities to the children of this state, Mayor Kenney is right to prepare the city to increase its spending on education. Indeed, we are so far from providing an adequate education to so many of our kids that even if state… Continue reading

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Are the Republicans Ready to Gut Higher Education to Avoid a Severance Tax on Natural Gas Drilling?

  By Budget, Education, Higher Education, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts, Pennsylvania Budget, Severance Tax, Taxation

As we enter the third week of an impasse over funding the 2017-2018 Pennsylvania state budget, an astonishing possibility has come into view: the House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike and Turzai and Majority Leader Dave Reed, appear to be prepared to block funding for the four state-related universities – Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University – rather than agree to the Governor’s demand that they raise $600 to $800 million in new recurring revenues. Governor Wolf and the Republican-led legislature have apparently agreed to a number of one-time revenue measures to close the budget deficit – proposals like borrowing from other funds or selling licenses for new gaming sites – that only bring in revenues in one year. But the Republicans, particularly in the House, appear unwilling to agree to Governor Wolf’s insistence that the fiscal health of the commonwealth requires new recurring tax revenues… Continue reading

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Rep. Brad Roae Compares School Board Members to Hitler

  By K-12 Education in PA, Legislative Politics and Rules, PA Budget and Policy Center, PBPC Blog posts

Marc Stier | 10/19/2016 Blog This week, in a Facebook discussion with a person who seems to be one of his constituents, Representative Brad Roae (R-Crawford/Erie) felt it was appropriate to compare school board members in Pennsylvania blaming charter schools for the financial difficulties of their districts to Adolf Hitler blaming Jews for “everything that was wrong with the world.” I’m not sure whether I should be more offended as a Jew or as a policy analyst by Representative Roae’s remark.     It is, of course, morally offensive to anyone who grasps the evil of Hitler’s murder of 6 million Jews, to compare it to any other crime. A general rule of thumb about Hitler comparisons is to not make Hitler comparisons. But to compare it to a public policy choice like the opposition of school boards to charter schools would be doubly offensive if it were not so… Continue reading