Education

2025 State of Education Spending in Pennsylvania

  • January 22, 2025

Overview The national trends impacting education in Pennsylvania in 2025 include an impending fiscal cliff, under-enrolled schools, and population decline, all of which lead to school closures…

Backgrounder

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Energy

State of RGGI: Past, Present, and Future

  • André Béliveau
  • December 5, 2024

Key Points The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a multi-state cap-and-trade program that imposes a carbon tax on power generators, resulting in a new, economy-wide energy tax. Pennsylvania entered…

Backgrounder

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Government Accountability

Election Reform in Pennsylvania

  • November 25, 2024

Summary Ahead of the 2020 election, Pennsylvania allowed no-excuse mail-in voting for the first time. Officials overwhelmed with millions of ballot requests, last-minute state guidance, and litigation resulted in delayed…

Fact Sheet

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Regulation

Prevailing Wage in Pennsylvania

  • October 7, 2024

Summary Prevailing wage law dictates the minimum wage rates paid to workers on public construction projects if the project’s estimated costs exceed a certain threshold. Pennsylvania’s threshold for prevailing wage…

Fact Sheet

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Education

2024–25 State Budget Analysis

  • July 12, 2024

Key Points Pennsylvania’s $47.6 billion 2024–25 budget creates a $3.6 billion structural deficit. This will exhaust General Fund reserves, which will require draining from the Rainy Day fund—illegally—or raising taxes…

Fact Sheet

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Education

The High Cost of Pa. K–12 Education Failures

  • June 28, 2024

Key Points The cost and risk of failure in our K–12 system is high. Low academic achievement is a predictor of lower lifetime incomes and higher costs for taxpayers. On…

Backgrounder

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State Budget

Proposed Tax Cuts and the 2024 State Budget

  • May 28, 2024

Key Points A responsible budget in fiscal year (FY) 2024–25 must grapple with Pennsylvania’s aging and shrinking workforce challenges through sound tax and regulatory reform. State Senate Republicans proposed two…

Fact Sheet

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Education

Pa. School Funding Reaches $22,000 per Student in 2023

  • May 20, 2024

Pennsylvania Public School Spending Is Growing Over the last decade, state spending on Pennsylvania public schools reached all-time highs year after year. Pennsylvania per-pupil public school funding increased to $21,985…

Fact Sheet

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