It being a big Olympic year, we felt it appropriate to measure the performance of our elected officials in Harrisburg, and review why some of our key causes lost.

Gold Medal: Public Education Agreement Breaks Records
There’s a $1 billion increase in funding for public schools. That alone is worthy of a gold medal but there’s more. This budget marks the first time that state lawmakers adopted our goal of concentrating twice as much new state funding in low-wealth school districts compared to what was allocated to all districts.

About a half a billion dollars will begin to give the 350 most underfunded school districts while $225 million is spread across all 500 districts helping every district meet rising costs. Prioritizing funds for the least resourced school districts is a major change of policy that will benefit schools that have struggled for decades to offer students a quality education. That makes this policy a clear gold medal winner.

Lawmakers didn’t score ten out of ten because there were some flubs in this otherwise stellar performance. They lost points for technical weaknesses associated with how they are now making school districts estimate how many of their students are poor. The Senate majority contrived to restrain the amount of new state funds for schools by using bogus data to reduce the number of students counted as being poor, cutting several hundred million dollars from what the state owes the most underfunded school districts.  

There were some good moves that balanced out the scoring just a bit. New state law will start to rein in the bilking of local taxpayers and school districts by cyber schools that were being paid $34 million more for special education services than they actually spent to educate special needs students. 

Silver Medal: College Investments Push PA Up in the Rankings
Pennsylvania has never been at the top of rankings when it comes to affordability or access to college. This year’s budget shows a real effort to change that by investing a record-breaking $143 million for college scholarships and $10 million for stipends for student teachers.  

Like other states, PA also upped our game by keeping the lid on tuition increases with $60 million more in state aid to public four-year schools and community colleges. To pave the way for a stronger higher education sector, a new higher education board was established to increase alignment between the sector and the needs of the economy. This change in strategy will also boost the accountability of these institutions so that parents and students can be confident that a college degree is more than a piece of paper – it’s a ticket to a family-sustaining job. 

Bronze Medal: High School Career and Technical Education Policy Begins to Make the State a Contender
Breaking years of resistance to expanding access to high school technical education, state lawmakers allocated $30 million more for career and technical education. PA has long trailed our neighboring states who provide a many more students access to effective high school training that’s proven to boost graduation rates by 21%. We urged state lawmakers to make this investment and count this win as a huge victory for high school students.  

It’s important to flag that these sweeping education wins were adopted without a tax increase. Actually, lawmakers passed more than $160 million in business tax breaks including a $600 million tax credit for private school enrollment, flooding to the private school sector with public dollars. On top of that, the budget deal added $740 million to the state’s $7 billion Rainy Day Fund. Given the tax breaks and swollen state reserves, it’s clear that lawmakers push for a win for every child and teen.  

Disappointing Defeats
Shortsighted coaching resulted in a budget that fails to invest in its youngest players, decreasing their odds of winning in the years ahead. COVID stunted early childhood development, and this missed opportunity to give more young children access to game changing early learning will drag Team PA’s performance down for years. 

Child Care Fails to Qualify: The severe shortage of staff willing to work for poverty wages in the child care sector means that 15,000 fewer children are enrolled in child care compared to pre-pandemic numbers. That means their parents are either not able to work or are relying on unlicensed care that puts their children at risk. Although state lawmakers joined us to call for a solution, none used their personal muscle to fund the Start Strong PA plan to boost child care staff wages. This plan had the backing of the Start Strong PA Coalition and 50 local chambers of commerce who know that businesses across this state are losing their competitive edge because families cannot find affordable child care.

Pre-K Stumbles: The captain of Team PA, Governor Shapiro, sought to strengthen pre-k programs statewide by infusing $30 million to boost the wages of the bachelor’s certified teachers who educate these young leaners and who typically earn less than $20 an hour. But the PA House and Senate delegation cut that increase in half, leaving Pre-K teachers on the sidelines.

Children’s Health Is Lackluster
The top coaches of state policy also failed to remember the most important public health lesson of the pandemic: health care coverage saved lives.  

In a disappointing “first place,” the number of uninsured children is rising faster in PA than in nearly every state, now at the 5.5% mark. Currently, about 145,000 children are in the losing position of being uninsured. Instead of keeping their heads in the game, state lawmakers unwisely rejected practical proposals to elevate the condition of children, choosing instead to wave off the red flags that indicate the health of our children is in peril.

The budget renews the $100 million for mental health services in schools, but that amount won’t go the distance with 1.7 million K-12 students in PA. New solutions that offer a full spectrum of mental health services, backed by insurance, will equip children with the skills to cope with the extraordinary challenges currently weakening their performance.

The future of Team PA depends on those elected to champion our children and teens and embrace new strategies that prepare every child for a winning future. That’s when Team PA will win the gold in every category!