Education
2025 State of Education Spending in Pennsylvania
Overview The national trends impacting education in Pennsylvania in 2025 include an impending fiscal cliff, under-enrolled schools, and population decline, all of which lead to school closures…
Read More: 2025 State of Education Spending in PennsylvaniaPennsylvania’s future is in the hands of the next generation. Parents and students—not activist agendas—should drive the Commonwealth’s education policy. While policymakers have been entrusted with ensuring the next generation receives a quality education, parents should be empowered to choose the quality education that meets their unique child’s needs. Charter schools and tax credit scholarships are integral pieces of school choice, but more reforms are needed to make school choice a reality for all Pennsylvania students.
Education
Expanding School Choice is Vital to Pa. Children
It's nearly impossible to overstate the significance of Pennsylvania's private school scholarship programs. The Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) have created more than 500,000…
Media
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Op-Ed: Is the Sky Falling on Children’s Education?
In the aftermath of Betsy DeVos’s confirmation as Secretary of Education, opponents predict she could decimate public education. Their perspective is misguided, unsupported by facts, and ultimately harmful for the future…
Commentary
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Breaking: Charters Receive Funding to Educate Students
Advocacy group Education Voters of PA—notorious critics of parental choice and defenders of a one-size-fits-all education system—made a few…
Media
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Education Savings Accounts Across the Country
The movement to provide children with better education is building momentum in 2017 as education savings accounts (ESA) advance in nearly a dozen states. Legislation has been filed in…
Media
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Crucial School Choice Expansion Passes Committee
In a bipartisan vote, the House Education Committee advanced legislation to boost Pennsylvania’s crucial private school scholarship programs, the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit…
Media
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Q&A: Education Savings Accounts
Could Education Savings Accounts change public education in Pennsylvania? We asked Jonathan Butcher, education director for the Goldwater Institute in Arizona and nationally-known expert on ESAs, for his expertise on…
Media
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State Budget Solution #3: Student-Focused Education Funding
Education Spending Must Put Children’s Needs First January 25, 2017, Harrisburg, Pa.—This week marks National School Choice Week, which recognizes the importance of ensuring children have…
Press Release
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Budget Solution of the Week: School Choice
Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Dave Reed challenged his colleagues to change the way Harrisburg operates: “Now is the time to reimagine and redesign government, our state and…
Media
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The Student Debt Threat
It shouldn’t be a debt sentence to get a college education. Yet in 2010, Americans’ student loan debt surpassed even that of credit card debt. In a testimony before…
Media
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A Christmas Wish List for Pennsylvania
“No more lives torn apart, and wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts.” You might recognize those words from the ubiquitous-around-the-holidays song, “Grown-Up Christmas List.” Grown up? Sure.
Commentary
Read More: A Christmas Wish List for PennsylvaniaCriminal Justice Reform
Embracing Innovation in State Government
Conventional governing is hampering Pennsylvania’s progress. Growing state budgets combined with one-time revenue transfers and targeted tax hikes are delaying the structural reforms essential to improving the quality…
Fact Sheet
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School Choice: Helping One Student at a Time
As a recent graduate from PA Leadership Charter School (PALCS), I’m familiar with school choice. In fact, for the past five years, I have joined my Student Government on an…
Media
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Will Lower Standards Help Pa. School Performance?
Pennsylvania’s primary tool for grading schools—the School Performance Profile (SPP)—is being overhauled. The current SPP is not particularly straightforward, but it’s based mainly on test scores and academic…
Media
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Magnum, P.I. Comes to Bethlehem
Bethlehem School District employs private investigators to track down students with fraudulent home addresses. According to The Morning Call, DBM Investigations and Consulting has identified 35 students…
Media
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Hits and Misses from the 2015-16 Legislative Session
That's a wrap. The 2015-16 legislative session is officially in the history books. Despite a $650 million tax hike, Pennsylvanians have a lot to celebrate from the past two years.
Media
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Details Emerge on Philly Union Negotiations
Intrepid reporter Kristen Graham of the Philadelphia Inquirer unearthed several details from contract negotiations between the school district of Philadelphia and the local teachers’ union, the Philadelphia Federation of…
Media
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Can a Dwight Schrute Save Scranton?
Dwight K. Schrute is an employee at Dunder Mifflin—a fictional Scranton paper company featured in NBC’s The Office. And he just may be the key to overcoming the city’s very…
Media
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Children Benefit From School Choice, And So Do You
The moral argument for school choice is irrefutable: Every child deserves access to a first-rate education. Families should not be limited by the supply of public schools within artificially-drawn district…
Media
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Ghosts in the Education Machine
If Pennsylvania students miss three days of school without an excuse, the law says they must be reported. But across the commonwealth, certain teachers have been absent for years—without consequences…
Commentary
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APSCUF Threatens Faculty
This morning, APSCUF, the union representing 5,000 faculty at the State System of Higher Education schools, went on strike. As we pointed out a few weeks ago, one…
Media
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House Speaker Seeks Boost for Vital Scholarship Programs
Pennsylvania’s private school scholarship programs account for less than 2 percent of the $11 billion in state funds allocated for public schools. Yet it is impossible to overstate the…
Media
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