Education

Voters Are Concerned About Shapiro’s Spending

  • Common Sense Weekly
  • June 27, 2025

Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation’s weekly news roundup of policy issues debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.Have you seen our recent social media videos?…

Blog

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Prosperity

Corporate welfare doesn’t work. Cutting red tape does.

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • December 11, 2024

Originally published at Broad + Liberty In 2021, Pennsylvania lawmakers created the Local Resource Manufacturing (LRM) tax credit to attract businesses to the Keystone State. Shortly after, Nacero, a…

Media Hit

Read More: Corporate welfare doesn’t work. Cutting red tape does.

Prosperity

Time for Shapiro to Ditch Corporate Welfare and Cut Red Tape

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • November 26, 2024

Originally published at The Philadelphia Citizen For two years, Gov. Josh Shapiro has talked about the need for government to “move at the speed of business.” Though…

Media Hit

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Education

Education Funding in the Commonwealth

  • January 10, 2024

Pennsylvania Outspends the Nation on Public Schools Pennsylvania ranks among the highest-spending states on public education. According to National Center for Education Statistics data, as of fiscal year (FY) 2021,…

Backgrounder

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Education

Pa. Back to School Public Education Trends

  • August 22, 2023

Overview As students head back to school, there are many claims of teacher shortages and funding shortfalls. In reality, public school spending is at a record high, and Pennsylvania ranks…

Backgrounder

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Education

Pa. Back to School Education Trends

  • August 26, 2022

Overview As students head back to school, there are many claims of teacher shortages and funding shortfalls. In reality, public school spending is at a record high and Pennsylvania ranks…

Report

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Government Accountability

How Pa. Governments Use Tax Dollars to Pay Associations to Lobby

  • Elizabeth Stelle, Jessica Barnett
  • December 1, 2021

Prohibiting local governments and government agencies from diverting public funds to these associations would increase transparency and prevent taxpayers’ dollars from funding lobbying harmful to taxpayers.

Backgrounder

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Government Accountability

How Pa. Governments Use Tax Dollars to Pay Contract Lobbyists

  • Elizabeth Stelle, Jessica Barnett
  • December 1, 2021

Prohibiting local governments and government agencies from diverting public funds to these associations would increase transparency and prevent taxpayers’ dollars from funding lobbying harmful to taxpayers.

Backgrounder

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Government Accountability

Fiscal Earmarks Reduce State Budget Transparency

  • Jessica Barnett
  • August 19, 2021

The 2021–2022 Fiscal Code contains at least $5.5 billion in federal and state funds earmarked for special projects across the state, up from $120 million last year. Most of this…

Backgrounder

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