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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…
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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
Rendell targets PHEAA
Rendell is calling for an “overhaul” of PHEAA. in today’s Tribune-Review. Our guess is that it will just be a shakedown rather than a true effort to reform that…
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Road Work
On the two year anniversary of Hurrican Katrina, Joel Kotkin in today’s Wall Street Journal notes how politicians push aside the more mundane aspects of “governing” for “the ephemeral…
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A Maverick Mogul, Proudly Politically Incorrect
The New York Times profiled Commonwealth Foundation First Amendment Scholar Thor Halvorssen’s most recent endeavors at the Moving Picture Institute to use the documentaries to spread the freedom…
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Pennsylvania Political War Over Planned Tolls on I-80
New York Times on the debate over tolling I-80. The Times points out, as this blog has, that the plan still requires federal approval, the program the Turnpike…
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Occupational Licensing in the States
Reason Foundation report on occupational icensing in the 50 states and how these requirements prevent many individuals from entering into their chosen profession. While Pennsylvania ranks somewhat low among…
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Lessons from Massachusetts
Sally Pipes on the lessons of Massachusetts’ Health Care Reform. Not to be confused with RomneyCare 2.0 (or as Michael Tanner puts it, Romney abandons RomneyCare)…
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Cyber School Funding on PA Newsmakers
Video of Nathan Benefield on Pennsylvania Newsmakers discussing cyber school funding.
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The Myth of Pre-K
Adam Schaeffer of the Cato Institute tackles the mythical benefits of universal pre-K: In truth, pre-K costs billions of dollars but returns little benefit. Supporters…
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The Global Warming Test
What do you know about Global Warming? Take the Global Warming Test from the Heartland Institute.
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Pinocchio Ed
Allegheny Institute’s Jake Haulk in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review challenges — among other half-baked claims made by Gov. Rendell — the mindset that government “investment” of tax dollars is a…
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Questions raised about union official’s pension
Story on the former Pittsburgh Port Authority union leader’s “special retirement package” in today’s Post-Gazette. And we wonder why Pittsburgh’s mass transit system is always on the verge…
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Watch Benefield on Cyber School Funding
I will be on Pennsylvania Newsmakers dicussing cyber school funding. Click here for TV listings this weekend and next week.
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Rendell, Orie: Privatize PHEAA
Post Gazette – PHEAA bonuses enrage Rendell: “I haven’t seen a mind-set change to ‘We’re a public agency and we’re going to act like a public…
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Taxpayers poised to pay $2 billion for pensions
Morning Call story on the looming crisis in state and school employees’ pensions.
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More on PHEAA from the Guv
Governor calls PHEAA bonuses “outrageous” – Breaking News with The Patriot-News Sens. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny, and John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, reacted to the bonuses by saying they plan to…
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Feds receive request to toll I-80
Toll Roads News on the Application of the PA Turnpike Commission for tolling I-80 – featuring a copy of the actual application and some commentary including: The application…
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Bonus Time At PHEAA
Jan Murphy at the Patriot News on PHEAA’s latest round of bonuses, noting that PHEAA CEO Dick Willey’s bonus is higher than Governor Rendell’s salary.The headline “PHEAA’s…
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Tobacco companies must pay Pa. growers
Story from the AP and Intelligencer Journal on a court ruling that tobacco companies must pay tobacco farmers for lost revenue (HT to Grassroots PA). The PA Attorney…
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Kids First?
David Freddoso on SCHIP on National Review Online takes on two key parts of the SCHIP debate. First is the Bush administration’s new rules that states will have to…
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Liberal Views, Black Victims
Walter E. Williams on crime in Philadelphia, and what citizens (yes, citizens, not lawmakers) should do about it.
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Improving Pennsylvania’s Highways and Bridges Through Public-Private Partnerships
State Senator Jake Corman on the benefits of P3s in Transportation, and his plans to introduce authorizing legislation in the fall.
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