Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is the Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
After 23 Years, Impact of 9/11 Flight 93 Crash Still Runs Deep
After two decades, the grief hasn’t faded. For Gordon Felt, it will never go away.
Under clear blue skies Monday, Mr. Felt stood just a few hundred yards from where the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93, including his brother Edward, lost their lives after thwarting a planned terrorist attack on the nation’s capital.
The New Jersey native travels to the Pennsylvania countryside, just outside of Shanksville, Somerset County, each year to honor his brother’s legacy, forever tied to the tragedy of 9/11.
“You don't recover and you don't want to,” Mr. Felt said. “I talk a lot about holding on to those memories, to that pain. You learn how to move forward, but you carry that with you.”
The Basic Economic Mistake Both Candidates Make
Poll after poll reveals what’s on voters’ minds: It’s the economy, stupid, as it was in 1992 when Bill Clinton’s campaign advisor James Carville invented the phrase. Voters consistently cite inflation as the most important issue affecting our country.
Economic fearmongering drives the disastrous policies both candidates propose in respone to voter concerns. And each candidate is guilty of blaming a boogeyman. For Kamala Harris, greedy corporations are gouging customers and raking in profits. For Donald Trump, foreign governments — primarily China — control the flow and pricing of consumer goods into our country.
Under President Joe Biden, consumer prices have increased 19.43%. The rate of increases may be slowing (following the highest inflation in 40 years), but prices are still rising.
New Commonwealth Foundation Leader Will Continue Fight to Champion Education Choice
Education-reform leader Andrew Lewis has been named the new president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, the Pennsylvania policy juggernaut considered one of the most successful and impactful of America’s state-based, pro-liberty, free-market think tanks.
A former member of the state’s general assembly, Lewis will be leading the Keystone State’s formidable center-right policy nonprofit, whose output has broader implications as the swing state finds itself increasingly at the center of Electoral College politics.
The Commonwealth Foundation raises more than $10 million annually to promote a policy agenda prioritizing educational opportunity, public-sector labor reform (which the organization also refers to as “public union democracy”), fiscal responsibility, and improving Pennsylvania’s overall economic climate.
At the capital in Harrisburg, Commonwealth has doggedly spearheaded efforts in the past few years centered on expanding education choice, aggressively working to promote Education Opportunity Accounts, through which Lifeline Scholarships would be used by students to find alternatives to low-achieving schools.
Pennsylvania Receives “D” Grade for Pro-Union Policies from Commonwealth Foundation
Pennsylvania has received a grade of “D” in one new ranking of states. However, not everyone considers this bad news.
After Labor Day, the Commonwealth Foundation ‘graded’ states based on their labor laws. A handful of states in the South received an “A+.” States like Maryland and California received an “F.”
“The defining aspect of this report is that we are looking at public-sector labor policy through the lens of workers and taxpayers rather than union executives like most other reports in this area do,” said Andrew Holman, a policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation.
