Priya Brannick
Senior Fellow
Priya Brannick is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation.
Priya has a Master of Arts in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude in 2002 with a degree in journalism from Texas Christian University. Before joining the Commonwealth Foundation, she was an international affairs journalist for WORLD Magazine and the Communications Director for the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
Priya’s primary research areas include education reform and labor policy. Her expertise has been featured in various media outlets including: KDKA, WITF, WHYY, the Patriot News, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, amongst others.
A native of Zambia, Africa, Priya has lived, worked, and traveled across the United States (and still admits to a strong fondness for soccer). She is deeply passionate about America’s founding principles, crafting sound public policy to better people’s lives, and ballroom dance.
Public Union Democracy
Rent Seeking: Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Musical
“Rent” isn’t just a depressing musical about New Yorkers facing AIDS. It’s also a term economists use to describe the benefits special interests win for themselves in the political…
Media
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Attacking Cyber School Funding
The House Education Committee held an informational hearing today with administrators from several of Pennsylvania’s cyber schools. The school officials mainly addressed myths about cyber school funding and performance,…
Media
Read More: Attacking Cyber School FundingPublic Union Democracy
Who Would Oppose Reforming a Costly, Unnecessary Law?
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives may vote today on a bill to reform the 1961 prevailing wage mandate. The prevailing wage requires government to pay higher wages and benefits for…
Media
Read More: Who Would Oppose Reforming a Costly, Unnecessary Law?Education
School Choice Gives Students Hope
Chester-Upland School District in the Philadelphia area is in deep financial trouble, and it made news recently for suing the state for emergency funding to keep going. In a…
Media
Read More: School Choice Gives Students HopePublic Union Democracy
Turn on the Fiscal Fire Hose
Since Gov. Corbett unveiled his 2012-13 budget Tuesday, we’ve noted how it reduces overall spending for only the second time in 40 years. We’ve also explained that despite…
Media
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Happy Digital Learning Day
Today is national Digital Learning Day, during which groups across the country will commemorate how technology is changing education for the better. So what exactly IS digital learning? Digital…
Media
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Bill Cosby Explains How to Really Educate a Child
We're in the middle of National School Choice Week, which means the word “education” is hot on the lips of its advocates across our state and country. Schooling is…
Media
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Ponderous PSEA, Virulent Violence Verified
Last December, the Commonwealth Foundation urged lawmakers to offer kids in Pennsylvania’s worst violent, failing schools a lifeline, and give them school choice for Christmas. We delivered bouquets of 17…
Media
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Bring Choice to Chester-Upland
Chester-Upland, a chronically failing and bankrupt school district of 3,700 students in Delaware County, last week filed a federal suit against the commonwealth to demand a $20.7 million bailout…
Media
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Crisis vs. Competition in Education
Here are two views on school choice, the idea that fostering a variety of schooling options for families—whether public, charter, cyber or private—is a good thing: School choice is a…
Media
Read More: Crisis vs. Competition in EducationGovernment Accountability
Teachers’ Union Dues at Leisure
A full-time teacher and member of the Pennsylvania State Education Association pays $654 a year in union dues to state, national and local affiliates of the union. While part-time teachers…
Media
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PSEA Exposed: Vex, Lies and Audio Tape
Nestled in the $4.2 million the Pennsylvania State Education Asssociation spent in 2010-11 on political activities are some very telling expenditures on polling firms. For example, remember the much-touted…
Media
Read More: PSEA Exposed: Vex, Lies and Audio TapeEducation
The Growing Lobbying Might of the PSEA
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest government union with 192,000 members, spent an astonishing $2.6 million in 2009-10 on “political activities and lobbying.” If that seems like a…
Media
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County Data Shows Prevailing Wage Hikes Costs
We have documented the racist origins of Pennsylvania’s prevailing wage law, how it artificially raises the costs of taxpayer-funded construction projects by 20 percent (or approximately $1 billion…
Media
Read More: County Data Shows Prevailing Wage Hikes CostsEducation
PSEA Ignores Children’s Cries for Help, Facts
Following the Commonwealth Foundation’s press conference with legislators highlighting how one violent act occurs every 17 minutes in Pennsylvania’s worst-performing schools, the Pennsylvania State Education Association retorted: “In…
Media
Read More: PSEA Ignores Children’s Cries for Help, FactsEducation
Our Villainous Plan to Let Parents Choose the Best School for Their Children
If you weren’t aware, Commonwealth Foundation is a sinister cog in a powerful underground organization of folks who support online learning. An article from The Nation bemoans conservative and libertarian…
Media
Read More: Our Villainous Plan to Let Parents Choose the Best School for Their ChildrenEducation
Teacher Evaluation Bill Up for Committee Vote
Reforming Pennsylvania’s teacher evaluation system is an important leg of Gov. Tom Corbett’s education reform agenda, along with school vouchers, charter school reform, and expanding the successful Educational Improvement Tax…
Media
Read More: Teacher Evaluation Bill Up for Committee VoteEducation
School Board President Ignores Will of Voters
How’s this for underhanded and nefarious election activity: On Nov. 8, longtime Pennsbury School Board President Gene Dolnick was voted out, but that didn’t stop him from trying to hurry through a…
Media
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Teacher Evaluations in DC Help Teachers and Students
After three years, Washington D.C.’s IMPACT evaluation system for teachers is improving teacher performance and benefiting students. The results (reported by Democrats for Education Reform) are noteworthy for…
Media
Read More: Teacher Evaluations in DC Help Teachers and StudentsGovernment Accountability
Government Unions Steal Worker Freedom
Pennsylvania is one of 28 states in which workers can be compelled to give part of their paycheck to a union just to keep their job. Moreover, even non-membership is…
Commentary
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Ackerman: School Choice Necessary to Reform Failing Schools
In case you missed it, former Philadelphia superintendent Arlene Ackerman emphatically endorsed vouchers and an expanded charter school system as the best way to rescue kids in failing schools. She writes:…
Media
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