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1. $23K per student, but only one in three can read at grade level

By Beth Ann Rosica
 

Despite spending more than $23,000 per student annually, only a third of Pennsylvania fourth graders can read at grade level. Lawmakers are scrambling to fix it — but are they missing a key solution?

As a result of what can only be called a crisis, House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle sponsored bills this year in an attempt to address the problem. The pending legislation is modeled after other state literacy laws where vast increases were seen; however, Pennsylvania excluded one potentially key component — third grade retention for students not reading proficiently.

Why It Matters. According to the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, Pennsylvania ranks 17th out of 50 states for fourth grade reading proficiency, despite higher than average funding levels. The Commonwealth Foundation reports Pennsylvania school districts spent over $23,000 per student in the 2023-2024 school year, “ranking seventh in the nation compared to the national average of $18,461.”

Of the states scoring higher than Pennsylvania and the national average, several have enacted laws focused on improving reading proficiency. 

One debatable component is the concept of retaining third grade students who are not proficient readers. Retention is the current term for what was previously known as “holding back” a student and repeating the third grade.
 

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2. Assaults keep climbing at Delco prison under county control, data shows

By Todd Shepherd
 

Assaults in the Delaware County prison last year reached a new high of 278, making it the most violent county lock-up among the ten most populous counties, according to data self-reported by the counties and compiled by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. But a prison expert says the data is imperfect and should be viewed cautiously.

This latest batch of numbers shows that the county may still be struggling with management and staffing issues in the three years since the government took control of the prison after being privately run for nearly 30 years. It also seems to echo many complaints from front-line correctional officers in the wake of the management transition.

Why It Matters. At a minimum, 2023 and 2024 are the prison’s own data with the government as the manager, which could suggest those numbers, even if self-reported, are reasonably standardized from one year to the next, and as such, could reveal directional trends.

And the data reflect complaints of many of the front-line staff in the wake of the government takeover.
In December 2022 — about nine months after the management transition — guards told the five-member county council of low morale and dangerous conditions.

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3. Lightning Round

• Melissa Hart: Is Pittsburgh’s fentanyl epidemic finally subsiding?

• Beth Ann Rosica: Protest theater in West Chester — hate has a home, after all

• Harper + Lamb: The four-letter word missing from the One Big Beautiful Bill: JOBS

• Guy Ciarrocchi: Democrats tell us who they are by what they fight for

• Thom Nickels: Three writers, three obituaries

• Jeff Hurvitz: The new Trojan horse

4. What we're reading

Earlier this week, in United States v. Skrmetti, held that states could ban “gender transition” surgeries and treatments for children. The story behind the case, and the ACLU’s strange decision to bring it to the Supreme Court when most observers thought they would lose, is carefully chronicled in a mostly balanced and even-handed article by Nicholas Confessore in the New York Times — yes, that New York Times. We were surprised, too.