Education

School Spending is the Issue

  • Nathan Benefield
  • May 9, 2014

My letter to the editor in yesterday’s York Daily Record addresses some inaccuracies about education spending in Pennsylvania. Your editorial on education funding (“Funding formula a good…

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Education

Charter School Reform

  • Nathan Benefield
  • March 14, 2014

Good morning, my name is Nathan Benefield; I am the vice president of policy analysis for the Commonwealth Foundation. I wish to thank Auditor General DePasquale for the opportunity to…

Testimony

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Education

Myth: PA Spends Less on Education

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 25, 2014

There are many myths circulating about how much Pennsylvania spends on public education. One such myth is that the state government used to provide 50 percent of all revenue for…

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Education

Cyber School Funding in Pennsylvania

  • Elizabeth Stelle, Priya Brannick
  • May 30, 2013

Cyber schools currently spend significantly less per student than school districts and only represent about 1% of spending on public education. Discrepancies in cyber school funding are the result of…

Memo

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Education

Attack on Charter Schools Shoddy and Misguided

  • Priya Brannick
  • June 21, 2012

School districts across Pennsylvania are in a budget crunch, due to a combination of overspending, ballooning pension costs and a loss of $1 billion in federal stimulus…

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Education

Four of Five Philadelphia Students Not Proficient in Reading or Math

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 8, 2011

Yesterday, the National Center for Education Statistics (part of the U.S. Department of Education) released district perfomance data on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  This is part…

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Education

Education Failure Costs PA Taxpayers and Businesses

  • June 20, 2011

The Wall Street Journal and Philadelphia Inquirer recently shined a light on the failure of public schools to prepare their students for college-level coursework. According to the…

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Education

Rendell’s Made-Up Government Workers Layoffs

  • Nathan Benefield
  • August 5, 2010

Here is a letter to the editor I recently submitted on Gov. Rendell’s threats of layoffs if Congress doesn’t give him FMAP Money: Gov. Rendell has been busy lobbying…

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Preschool for All!

  • Nathan Benefield
  • October 3, 2007

National Review article (from Free Library) on the push for government-run “universal preschool”: The irony is that early education is already an American strength. The National Center for…

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