Education

Pension Cost Conundrum: Cut Teachers or Raise Taxes?

  • June 14, 2013

A recent report released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute estimates Philadelphia School District (SDP) pension payments will total $349 million by 2020, which is a 378 percent increase…

Media

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State Budget

The Case for Corbett’s Tax Reform

  • Nathan Benefield
  • June 13, 2013

Combined with the federal tax rate, Pennsylvania businesses pay the second highest tax on their profits in the entire industrialized world.

Commentary

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Health Care

Corbett’s Wise Medicaid Stance

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • April 30, 2013

While advocates of expanding the welfare state are using new studies to push Gov. Tom Corbett to expand Medicaid, his position of resisting the “free money” argument is wise given…

Media

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Regulation

Pennsylvania Stuck in Prohibition

  • Matthew Brouillette
  • April 6, 2013

Eighty years ago, baseball was still segregated, Social Security was non-existent and it was illegal to buy alcohol in the United States. Times have changed, and Prohibition has since ended…

Commentary

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Education

Busting Charter School Funding Myths

  • Priya Brannick
  • December 27, 2012

Charter schools are under fire again this month, following renewed criticism from Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner on how the schools spend and save their funding.

Media

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Public Union Democracy

Stones to Take on Goliath

  • Nathan Benefield
  • November 13, 2012

My friend Jon Caldara of our sister think-tank in Colorado eloquently and humorously offers an important lesson from the election—the results stem not from a short-term campaign, but from…

Media

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Taxes & Economy

Will Shale Boom Change Election?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • November 1, 2012

The shale gas boom has boosted the economy in key battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, which may help President Obama, despite his hostility towards fracking—the process which…

Media

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Public Union Democracy

What Mitt Is Missing

  • October 31, 2012

Union bosses always profess to care most about the rights of members. But a careful reading of a feverish sermon in the left-of-center magazine In These Times reveals that their…

Media

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Education

Parental Choice + Competition = Better Schools

  • Nathan Benefield
  • October 1, 2012

A new study of academic performance in Ohio finds that traditional public schools facing competition from charter schools experience greater gains in student learning.  In summarizing the findings, the…

Media

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