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Bloated budget proposal disappoints

Adopting a state budget each year is one of the most important tasks of the General Assembly. I take seriously my commitment to ensure your tax dollars are invested responsibly to support the core functions of government. That’s why I was very disappointed last week as majority House Democrats piled on to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s already bloated budget and forced through a nearly $46.5 billion spending plan. That’s a $5.7 billion, or 14%, increase over the current year! This level of spending is unsustainable and, if enacted, would lead to a 30% tax hike in the near future. It is ...

School property taxes fund cyber charter schools’ excesses

More than $3.4 million spent on advertising over a 3-month period. Over $75,000 spent on tickets, parking, and concessions for Major League baseball games–including $50 per person for rooftop catering. Tens of thousands of dollars spent sponsoring minor league baseball and hockey teams. Over $100,000 spent on branded clothing and other swag. These aren’t the expenses of a large private corporation. Instead, these are a few examples from nearly 3,000 pages of invoices Education Voters of PA received from Right to Know requests for cyber charter school advertising costs in the ...

Volunteer — get more than you give

Most of us have heard people say something along the lines of “I get more out of it than they do” when talking about the volunteer experience. Some will even couch that statement with “I know it sounds cliché, but …” as if others may not believe the genuine feeling they get from their belief. However, it’s a statement that should be celebrated without an ounce of shame, because it highlights the truth about the volunteer experience. When we volunteer, we can find common ground with others we may have perceived as different from ourselves. We discover new passions and ...

How we can fix Pennsylvania’s broken education system

Are Pennsylvania schools underfunded? Before COVID-19, 52 percent of Pennsylvania voters thought so. Then, after voters learned the actual price tag, this number dropped by half. Three years later, a Franklin & Marshall College poll finds only 44 percent of respondents believe schools lack funding, revealing a subtle yet notable shift in public sentiment. As education spending balloons—soaring 55.7 percent in the last decade — Pennsylvanians are increasingly skeptical of demands for more education funding. New data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education shows statewide ...

As voters weigh frontrunners — what’s wrong with the old guys?

A lot of the debate in the political arena today is about the old guys who either are president or want to be president. If I hear one more time that our next president is likely to be either Biden or Trump, and that their chief “deficiency” is their age, well I just may do something desperate. While I am not as old as either one of those characters, just what is wrong with old age other than medical infirmities and being sent off on an iceberg by our kids? My mother made it past 102 and if you sat down and talked with her at any time during her life, she bragged not about her ...

State eliminates Medicaid backlog

Every Pennsylvanian deserves access to high-quality, affordable, local health care, and the dignity and peace of mind of knowing they can get care when they need it. The Commonwealth has no shortage of health care professionals who want to provide care through the Medicaid program, which serves more than 3.6 million Pennsylvanians, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities. However, until recently, long wait times to be approved by the state were often a barrier for providers who wanted to offer services through Medicaid. This backlog had real consequences: not only ...