What is Going on in Philadelphia Schools?

  • July 10, 2025

Something stinks in Philadelphia, and it’s more than just the mountains of garbage piling up from the recently resolved trash collectors’ strike. The Philadelphia School District has been all over…

Blog

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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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Energy

Governor’s Lone Wolf Approach Leaves Families Wanting

  • May 27, 2021

Throughout his two terms in office, Governor Tom Wolf has showcased his preference to act unilaterally and consistent unwillingness to work with the state legislature. The unprecedented power Wolf has…

Fact Sheet

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Op-Ed: Pennsylvania Doesn’t Have a Friend in Tom Wolf

  • Nathan Benefield
  • February 22, 2021

As Pennsylvanians suffer under Wolf’s leadership, they will have a chance to force the governor to work with the legislature. This May, voters will get a say on a state…

Commentary

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Op-Ed: PA Supreme Court’s power grab threatens election integrity

  • Stefanie Mason
  • November 2, 2020

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that Pennsylvania’s Democrat-majority state Supreme Court usurped the Legislature to tip the political scales. In 2018, the Court threw out congressional district maps passed by the…

Commentary

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State Halts Unemployment Payments Due to Mass Fraud

  • September 28, 2020

Pennsylvania delayed Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments after a 300% increase in applications. Over 10,000 inmates were illegally submitting unemployment applications from behind bars.  Once again, the multimillion-dollar modernization project for…

Media

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Criminal Justice Reform

Safe and Smart: Restructuring Pa.’s Probation System

  • September 13, 2018

CF’s newest policy brief, Safer Communities, Smarter Spending, provides a unique look at the problems in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system. The commonwealth’s incarceration rate is too high. Its supervision…

Media

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Criminal Justice Reform

Obama Learns from Pa. on Corrections Reform

  • Nathan Benefield
  • August 13, 2013

Criminal justice policy that offers less spending, lower crime and improved outcomes for offenders—too good to be true? Actually, that is the result of recent corrections reforms in…

Media

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Government Accountability

Does Legislative Size Matter?

  • Nathan Benefield
  • April 30, 2010

Good morning.  I am Nathan Benefield, Director of Policy Research for the Commonwealth Foundation.  We are a nonprofit, independent public policy research and educational institute based in Harrisburg.  I…

Testimony

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