Welcome to Common Sense Weekly! This is Commonwealth Foundation's weekly news roundup of policy issues being debated in Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania.
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New Poll: Voters Concerned About Increased Spending, Lack of Leadership
As the June 30th deadline looms, voters made their stance on negotiations clear — Gov. Josh Shapiro must play a more active role at the negotiating table, with a focus on achieving bipartisan compromise and fiscal responsibility.
Commonwealth Foundation has released new polling assessing voter sentiment around the Pennsylvania state budget battle and key policy proposals being debated in Harrisburg. The new poll reveals voters’ concern with proposals that would increase spending and taxes, while registering strong demand for expanded educational choice.
New Research: Welfare Reforms in the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" Would Protect Pennsylvanians
Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as Food Stamps, were intended to help provide health insurance and food for low-income seniors, families, and disabled Pennsylvanians. Over time, these programs expanded to prioritize healthy, working-age adults without kids.
Proposals in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) reconciliation bill, now before the U.S. Congress, would refocus these programs back on the most vulnerable, increase incomes for healthy adults, and make systematic changes to reduce extensive waste and abuse.
Six Reasons Why Hold Harmless is Anything But for Kids
Hold harmless is a policy that guarantees school districts the same amount of funding as they had in the prior year, regardless of fluctuations in enrollment. This means that public school districts receive the same amount of funding from Harrisburg regardless of how many students exit the school system, whether by graduating, relocating, dropping out, or switching to homeschool or private school.
Here are six reasons why Pennsylvania’s hold-harmless policy hurts public education.
Shapiro Puts Energy Consumers at Risk
Governor Shapiro proudly announced on June 9 that Amazon would be investing $20 billion in Pennsylvania to build state-of-the art data centers creating more than 1,200 jobs. One of the data centers will be located here in Bucks County. Shapiro’s announcement said, “This initial investment from Amazon will create thousands of good-paying, stable jobs as Pennsylvania workers build, maintain, and operate the first two data-center campuses in Luzerne County and Bucks County.” Sounds like good news for Bucks County and Pennsylvanians.
Not so fast.
Philly Teacher Union Threatening to Strike is Mostly Performative
Philadelphia’s massive teacher union—the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT)—has already threatened to disrupt students’ education when the doors open this fall. Just a few months into negotiations over a new contract, PFT president Art Steinberg induced membership to “authorize” a strike. Reportedly, the vote was a landslide.
PFT’s strike authorization means little at this stage. To go on strike in Pennsylvania, a teacher union must reach the end of its existing contract (which doesn’t expire until the end of August), bargain until an impasse with the school board, and undergo several procedures to break the deadlock. If the stalemate persists after both sides have exhausted all efforts, the union can issue a strike notice.
