Education

How Does Seniority Mandate Help Kids, Exactly?

  • Priya Brannick
  • July 7, 2011

Here’s a letter to the editor I sent to the Erie Times on furloughing teachers: National Education Association board member Sam Talarico unsurprisingly takes strong exception to the…

Media

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Regulation

CF Applauds Initial Liquor Liberty Law Proposal

  • July 7, 2011

HARRISBURG, Pa.,-Commonwealth Foundation wholeheartedly praised House Majority Leader Mike Turzai for filing a proposal today seeking co-sponsors for his bill that would end the state’s liquor monopoly.  Turzai’s bill will…

Press Release

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Taxes & Economy

Pennsylvania’s Economic Outlook Among Nation’s Worst

  • July 7, 2011

The annual Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index ranked Pennsylvania among the least economically promising states. Since 2008, Pennsylvania’s economic outlook has dropped from 36th…

Media

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Education

President Obama Is Right

  • Charles Mitchell
  • July 6, 2011

Savor that headline, because you won’t see it on this blog too often.  But it’s true.  As our friend Lindsey Burke at the Heritage Foundation points out, today at…

Media

Read More: President Obama Is Right

Education

Will the “Year of School Choice” Come to PA?

  • Charles Mitchell
  • July 5, 2011

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an editorial that begins as follows: School may be out for the summer, but school choice is in, as states across the nation…

Media

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Public Union Democracy

Disappointing Results from State Union Contract Deals

  • Priya Brannick
  • July 5, 2011

So far, the Corbett administration has concluded new four-year contracts with Pennsylvania’s two largest state worker unions, which represent 55,000 government workers—and the taxpayers are the losers.  The deals with…

Media

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PLCB: Oops, We’re Not MOST Un-American!

  • July 5, 2011

MOSCOW HARRISBURG (July 5) — In a troublesome twist by the problematic potables policemen, a PLCB spokesperson contacted CF directly this afternoon to notify us that the mysterious disappearance of an agency…

Media

Read More: PLCB: Oops, We’re Not MOST Un-American!

Regulation

PLCB Pulls Puzzling Perestroika Presser

  • July 5, 2011

In a mystifying maneuver made by the mother of all monopolies, the puzzling purveyors of Pennsylvania Perestroika, the PLCB, pulled a press release from the wire and its Web site today that…

Media

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Regulation

CF Blasts Big Brother Booze Brag

  • July 5, 2011

Commonwealth Foundation denounced a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board press release today for its failure to disclose all the fiscal facts and for boasting about a government-run monopoly on liquor…

Press Release

Read More: CF Blasts Big Brother Booze Brag

Education

Cut Waste at This Temple, and I Will Praise It in Three Days

  • Charles Mitchell
  • July 1, 2011

Temple University just announced that it is raising tuition by ten percent, blaming the new state budget.  Temple is an outstanding example of an institution that should have spent…

Media

Read More: Cut Waste at This Temple, and I Will Praise It in Three Days

State Budget

Pennsylvania’s $1.9 Billion Budget Shortfall

  • Nathan Benefield
  • July 1, 2011

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue released preliminary FY 2010-11 revenue collection. Their statement says: Fiscal year 2010-11 General Fund collections totaled $27.5 billion, which is $785.5 million,…

Media

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State Budget

The Good, The Bad and The Undone

  • July 1, 2011

The Commonwealth Foundation praised Gov. Tom Corbett and the General Assembly for closing Pennsylvania’s $4.2 billion budget gap without raising taxes on working Pennsylvanians, but a thorough review of the…

Press Release

Read More: The Good, The Bad and The Undone