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Education
Public Schools Increased Spending to $23,000 Per Student, Ballooned Reserves While Enrollment Declined
Harrisburg, Pa., May 15, 2025 — Pennsylvania school districts increased overall revenue collected in 2023–24 to $23,000 per student, while expanding general fund reserves to $7.4 billion, according to new…
Read More: Public Schools Increased Spending to $23,000 Per Student, Ballooned Reserves While Enrollment Declined
Energy
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on RGGI
Read More: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on RGGI
Education
Senate Education Committee Approves Bipartisan PASS Scholarships, Offering Lifeline to Students in Need
Read More: Senate Education Committee Approves Bipartisan PASS Scholarships, Offering Lifeline to Students in Need
Prosperity
New Report: Gig-Workers Prefer Flexibility of Portable Benefits
Read More: New Report: Gig-Workers Prefer Flexibility of Portable Benefits
Congressman wants probe of Fumo link to I-80 toll bid
Congressman Peterson has asked the Inspector General at US DOT to look into the Sen. Fumo-Turnpike Commission connection, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Apparently he thinks that when an indicted…
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Read More: Congressman wants probe of Fumo link to I-80 toll bid
A Health-Insurance Solution
Merrill Matthews in the Wall Street Journal on John Shadegg’s Congressional proposal to allow individuals to purchase health insurance from any state. He uses the example of New Jersey…
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Descendant of Davy Crockett, 5, kills bear
Unbelievable news story of the day from ESPN…
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Read More: Descendant of Davy Crockett, 5, kills bear
Legislators Seek ‘Accountability’ For Cyber Charters
Article in today’s Evening Bulletin on the battle over cyber schools. Karen Beyer claims that “school choice proponents have paid lobbyists a sizeable amount to argue against HB 446:…
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More I-80 Tolling Opposition
Another letter from state lawmakers to US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on I-80 tolling. This one from the “I-80 House Coalition” – twelve Republican House members with I-80 running…
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Supreme Court Fight Club
The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a grand jury could continue investigate Louis DeNaples, owner of Mount Airy Casino. Of course, John Baer broke this story over…
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Calendar Update
Our first batch of Capitol Calendars for Property Tax Relief are now for sale on eBay.(Click here for details). The latest Democracy Rising newsletter features a…
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Uninsured will grow under RendellCare
Pop quiz: The Rendell administration has estimated that 800,000 Pennsylvania adults are currently uninsured. If Governor Rendell’s “Cover All Pennsylvanians” were implemented as designed – costing up to $1.4 billion…
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The (Tax) War Between the States
Art Laffer and Steven Moore in today’s Wall Street Journal look at how tax competitiveness between states (i.e. lower taxes) results in greater population and economic growth: Of…
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Calendars for Property Tax Relief
ave your Capitol Calendars! You know those calendars you get from state legislators, which come with “Compliments of [Your Legislator]”, though they were paid with…
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Rolling out all the reasons against tolling I-80
Post-Gazette article reviews all the reasons to oppose I-80 tolls (or at least many of them).
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Arthur Laffer on taxes
Interesting conversation with Arthur Laffer on the effect of tax cuts in The Curious Capitalist blog. Also check out Laffer’s response to “Crackpot Economics”…
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A Zero-Sum Wealth Quiz
Coyote Blog takes on the zero-sum game myth of wealth and the economy, with a simple comparison of the rich of 100 years ago and the middle class of…
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All’s good, according to Bill DeWeese
Pennsyltucky Politics gets a positive prognosis from Bill DeWeese (along with some choice words about Patriot News reporter Charlie Thompson, “slithering around in his usual unkempt reptilian fashion.”) DeWeese…
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Sam Smith joins I-80 Toll Opposition
House Minority Leader Sam Smith has joined in the calls for the US Dept. of Transportation to reject I-80 tolls. Get his news release and letter here.
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Toll war building strength
Article in the Centre Daily Times on the Anti I-80 tolling movement.
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Anti I-80 Tolling Blogs and Websites
Here are a couple of new websites and blogs focusing solely on the tolling of I-80 and Act 44. The I-80 Toll Disaster Blog (including an interesting post titled…
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Pennsylvania gets an “F” for worker Freedom
A report card from the Alliance for Worker Freedom gives Pennsylvania an “F” for meeting none of the ten measures of worker freedom. As with all states…
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What do “highly-paid lobbyists” want?
I had to share this email exchange between Simon Campbell of StopTeacherStrikes and Rep. Karen Beyer, prime sponsor of HB 446 (which, in the name of “accountability” includes…
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Read More: What do “highly-paid lobbyists” want?
DePasquale to take on school spending
One lawmaker who seemingly did read our Edifice Complex report is Eugene DePasquale, who is going to propose legislation to “to rein in spending on school construction”. DePasquale…
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Response to Cyber School News Release
Following our call for rejection of unequal limits on cyber schools (which passed the House Education Committee today), I had an interesting email exchange with a public school employee.
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Read More: Response to Cyber School News Release