(The Center Square) – The national discussion on keeping students off cell phones during school has reached full boil in many state capitals, and Luisa Baez isn’t surprised that Harrisburg is one of them.

The 37-year-old mother of two has a 16-year-old daughter at McCaskey High School in Lancaster, and she knows a ban is being talked about there.

Baez knows phones are disruptive, but she also worries about attacks on schools.

“What if they have to hide and what if they have to get in touch with us?” Baez said.

That strong sentiment among many parents – which experts push back against – is just one thread in a complex debate simmering in the Pennsylvania Capitol. In the eyes of one close observer, one thing on the minds of policymakers should be money.

“From a taxpayer standpoint, this is catastrophic,” said Kelly Marsh, a leader in the “PA Unplugged” coalition, which aims to improve the way technology is used in society.

Marsh, an Allegheny County mother of three, pointed to a study published earlier this month in the online medical journal JAMA Network Open. It found that among 79 youths aged 11 to 18 years, the typical amount of time devoted to cell phone use was one-third of the school day – in Marsh’s view, a massive waste of taxpayer-funded education money.

Another question in the debate in the Legislature is whether there should be a ban for the full school day, or just during class time. Still another is whether the students should be allowed to keep the phones on their person or whether the devices should be put away somewhere.

One bill awaiting action in Harrisburg, whose leading sponsors include Republican Sen. Devlin Robinson of Allegheny County, would create a “bell-to-bell” ban for the entire school day. Robinson said districts could purchase special cell phone holding bags or require students to keep them in lockers, book bags, or other holding devices.

The Robinson bill – co-led by Democratic Sens. Vincent Hughes and Steve Santarsiero – passed the Senate last month in a 46-1 vote. It is now awaiting action in the House Education Committee, chaired by Lehigh County Democratic Rep. Peter Schweyer, who sees the Robinson bill as a palatable option.

During the forced remote learning in the COVID-19 pandemic, Schweyer said, his school district had to deal with 3,000 households without Internet access – and teachers started using cell phone reachouts as an education tool.

It hasn’t stopped, Schweyer said.

“Teachers are using cell phones in a manner that is constructive and educational,” he said. Hence, he said, the Robinson bill still “needs a little bit of work” to include permitting cell phone use for educational purposes.

A mother of four kids ranging in age from 8 to 14, Democratic state Rep. Mandy Steele, has sponsored a bill to have the devices collected and removed from student possession for the entire day. It, too, is awaiting action in Schweyer’s committee.

“It is a massive, massive public health issue. The largest one I am aware of,” said Steele. Phones, she said, contribute to children’s mental health problems, self-harm incidents, obesity, and disrupted academics. “This is something our country needs to drop everything for and tackle it immediately.”

But Schweyer, who also has children, said he will not support “confiscations of the cell phone at the start of the day.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told lawmakers during his February budget address he wants a bill “to ban cell phones while kids are in school.”