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1. Pennsylvania’s budget bullies cyber students out of their money

By Guy Ciarrocchi

The Pennsylvania state budget for 2025-26 is finally law — just 135 days late. The budget grew 5.1 percent, and will spend an eye-popping $3.5 billion (with a “B”) more than the Commonwealth will receive in tax revenue.

Yet despite this taxpayer-funded deficit-spending spree, one area of the $50.4 billion budget was cut: funding for cyber charters students.

For the second year in a row, over 68,000 K-12 students from Erie to South Philly will get less funding — retroactive to the start of this school year, beginning three months ago. Tragically, too few Harrisburg politicians care about those children, and almost no politician fears the wrath of their parents, families, and the schools’ staff. Plus, far too many love the teachers union — or fear their wrath.

Why It Matters. Cyber students are the weaklings in the political schoolyard. It’s why their funding — already only about 65 percent of what a traditional district public school student receives — was slashed about eighteen percent. One year after it was cut seven percent.

Why? To prop up the teachers union schools and harm their competitor schools.

How ironic, how insincere, how cruel that the very Democratic politicians seeking their own moral high ground — pretending to defend the poor and various minorities — are the very ones leading the angry charge to cut the schools that are the refuge for so many of those students. 

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2. Wissahickon School District rankings fall as achievement gaps deepen

By Beth Ann Rosica

Data from state test scores show the district has been in decline over the past ten years, and outcomes for African-American and Hispanic students are disproportionately lower than for white and Asian students. 

In 2015, over 98 percent of all Wissahickon High School students were proficient or advanced in Literature, yet that number dropped to 86.9 percent in 2024. Rates for black and Hispanic students dropped significantly from 2019 to 2024 with proficiency rates at only 51.6 percent for black students and 63.3 percent for Hispanic students.

Why It Matters. Carmina Taylor, a long time resident of Penllyn in Lower Gwynedd township, primarily blames the all-Democratic school board for failing to hold accountable the prior and current superintendent to focus on academic outcomes for not only black students, but all students. She believes now that there is a decline for white and Asian students, more people are starting to pay attention. However, the community just elected another all Democratic board, continuing the eight-year trend for at least another two years.

“The current school board President, Amy Ginsberg, who has spent eight of the last ten years on the district’s Achievement Gap Attack Plan, has not given a public statement as to why the levels keep decreasing,” said Taylor. “It’s actually been an ongoing systemic failure of leadership and oversight by the board for decades; however, this time, Asian and white students are impacted.”

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3. Lightning Round

• Christine Flowers: The horror of ordinary men

• Kyle Sammin: So-called skill games are a racket the state should ban, not tax

• Thom Nickels: Faith, identity, and the questions that remain

• Paul Davis: Guns Down, Gloves Up, Hands Out

• Ben Mannes: From sanctuary to subsidy, Pennsylvania’s proposed migrant programs may cross legal lines

4. What we're reading.