State Budget
Why PA State Debt is “So Low”?
Yesterday, during his mid-year budget briefing, Gov. Rendell repeated his claims that Pennsylvania state debt is pretty low, less than $1,000 per resident, and much lower (relative to state GDP)…
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Auditor General Hits the Wrong Target
Here is a note I sent to Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner regarding his call for a moratorium on new charter schools until the funding mechanism is “fixed”:…
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Cyber School Rewarded for Its Effectiveness
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has renewed the charter for the state’s first cyber charter school to offer all grades K-12. CEO Dr. Nick Trombetta acknowledged this accomplishment:…
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Pennsylvania Education Spending
Pennsylvania's education spending increased from $4 billion in 1980 to over $25 billion in 2009-a 133% increase in per-pupil spending, after adjusting for inflation. School construction and debt spending has…
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Pennsylvania State & Local Taxpayer Debt
Gov. Ed Rendell frequently argues that Pennsylvania taxpayers can afford to incur more state debt. However, in order to justify the borrowing of billions of dollars, the governor conveniently ignores…
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PA’s “Race to the Top” Plan Upsets Cyber Schools and PSEA
The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” plan – attempting to get about $400 million from federal taxpayers via the “stimulus” – has drawn a number of critics.
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No Correlation Between PA School District Spending and Performance
Tracie Mauriello of the Post-Gazette raises a source of dispute, via Twitter, on education spending vs. performance: pgPoliTweets: Rendell: Ed achievement is correlated to ed spending.
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Is Our Kids Learning Better Now?
Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released the PSSA results (the state standardized tests), and celebrated the results. Of course, the Rendell administration wants to take credit for the…
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PA School Districts Have $2.4 Billion in Reserves
New data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (released last week) show that school districts across the state have a combined $2.4 billion in General Fund reserves as of…
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