(The Center Square) – Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget address was optimistic about the prospects of the state’s divided legislature coming together for another year, citing last year’s reimagining of public school funding as supporting evidence. Education remains one of the highest ticket items in this year’s budget. Notably absent from […]
Rep. Jason Ortitay: Pennsylvania’s approach to literacy needs to change
Over the past decade, Pennsylvania has increased education spending by 51 percent, now spending about $20,900 per student. Despite this, fourth-grade reading scores have steadily dropped, showing that more money isn’t fixing the problem. This should concern everyone who cares about our kids’ future. I believe we need to rethink […]
Katie Hetherington Cunfer: Making the case for school facilities funding
In 2024, Governor Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly awarded $250 million in public school facilities funding to nearly 300 school districts and career and technical schools. These funds, provided in the form of competitive, matching grants under the Public School Facilities Improvement Grant (PSFIG) and the Public Schools Environmental […]
Beth Ann Rosica: Pennsylvania agency ignores Trump’s executive order on two sexes
One of President Trump’s first executive orders has quickly put hundreds of school districts across the commonwealth in a legal quandary over gender designations, as the newly signed order is in direct conflict with state regulations. Titled, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal […]
Award for Philly schools superintendent sparks controversy following antisemitism failures
Allegations of antisemitism in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) erupted after the October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel, but the district’s actions and a subsequent investigation don’t show a culture that’s improving. I reported in May about extensive accusations from students, parents, and teachers within the district. When Superintendent […]
Central Bucks School Board members use Signal for official business, evading public disclosure laws
In its haste to hire a new solicitor and undo some of the policies of the previous Republican-led board, the Democratic majority board that took control of the Central Bucks School District (CBSD) in 2023 allegedly violated the Sunshine Act. That’s the contention of a lawsuit filed by residents John […]
Rural schools find security in armed educators
The South Side School District Board of Directors voted unanimously in October to approve several staff, including the superintendent and a principal, to act simultaneously as school police officers. Located in rural Beaver County, there is not a local police department to support the district and the response time for […]
Beth Ann Rosica: Despite federal reversal, PA continues to allow boys to compete against girls in school sports
Last month, the Biden administration quietly abandoned its plan to force school districts to allow boys to compete against girls in sports. Before that about-face, districts across the country had been threatened with a loss of federal funding if they failed to comply with yet another revision of the Title […]
Report finds that School District of Philadelphia did not comply with federal laws following antisemitic harassment complaints
Over the past two school years, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) received a myriad of antisemitic harassment complaints and failed to demonstrate an appropriate response, according to a report and press release issued last Friday by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). SDP “received repeated, […]
Beth Ann Rosica: State education department rescinds DEI guidelines — but some local school districts will follow them anyway.
As a result of legal action brought by several western Pennsylvania school districts, the state Department of Education (PDE) in November rescinded its Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education Program Framework Guidelines (CR-SE). These guidelines included nine controversial competencies with multiple standards that were required to be incorporated into teacher professional development […]