NEWS
Buckle up—we are building momentum for charter school reform in PA!
It is an exciting time for public education advocates who support charter and cyber charter school reforms that will benefit students and taxpayers in Pennsylvania. In mid-August, Governor Wolf put forward strong proposals to improve the quality, transparency, and...
Do your lawmakers support cyber charter school funding reform?
Would you take a few minutes to ask your state lawmakers about their positions on cyber charter school funding and accountability reforms? Right now, lawmakers are in their districts enjoying summer vacations. They are away from Harrisburg and have time to reflect on...
The Good, Bad, Ugly & Unconscionable in the 2019-2020 PA Budget
The state budget is done and a last-ditch effort made by anti-public education lawmakers to include harmful charter school legislation in the school code bill was defeated. Governor Wolf stood strong with our public schools and House Bill 357, which would have...
PA Republicans advance massive charter school & school voucher expansion
Dear Republicans hold majorities the House and Senate in Harrisburg, so their priorities receive a vote. They have ignored pleas from their constituents to address the urgent need for cyber charter school funding reform to reduce enormous overpayments for failure in...
New report finds overwhelmingly negative results for students in cyber charter schools & mixed results for brick-and-mortar charter schools.
MEMO To: Interested Parties From: Susan Spicka, Executive Director, Education Voters of PA Date: June 4, 2019 Re: CREDO’s Charter School Performance in Pennsylvania (2019) report finds overwhelmingly negative results for students in cyber charter schools and mixed...
Stop the Charter School Expansion Bills
Last week Republican members of the House Education Committee advanced two charter school expansion bills that deliver the charter school industry’s wish list. We anticipate that the House will vote on these bills in early June. Click HERE to send a letter to your...
$100 million more for PA’s “secret school tax”
The PA House Education Committee passed what appears to be a top education priority for many lawmakers this year: a massive increase in taxpayer-funded school vouchers that benefit wealthy families. These lawmakers are not prioritizing an additional $100 million to...
Help end Tom Corbett’s influence over education in PA
Tom Corbett was voted out of office more than four years ago, yet his appointees continue to control the Charter School Appeal Board (CAB), a powerful body that can overturn school board decisions to deny charter school applications and strip communities of control...
State funding system leaves career tech students behind
High quality career and technical education (CTE) programs can equip students with skills, certifications, and higher-education credits that will allow them to graduate from high school ready to enter the workforce in a field they love and in a job that pays a...
So long, SPP. The Future Ready PA Index has arrived!
This week, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released the Future Ready PA Index, a new holistic school evaluation tool that gives parents and community members a treasure trove of information about every school in the commonwealth. Click HERE to explore the...
Now we hold lawmakers accountable for every child’s education
This week Pennsylvanians elected representatives in Harrisburg who will spend the next two or four years shaping education policy and determining how much funding our children’s public schools will receive. We must hold them accountable for every child’s education. We...
Don’t miss out on November 17th!
On Tuesday, November 6, Pennsylvanians will elect a governor, 203 state representatives, and 25 (of 50 total) state senators. On Saturday, November 17th, Pennsylvanians will come together at eight historic regional advocacy summits to kick off a statewide movement to...
Help shut down a school voucher tax shelter
Did you know that some Pennsylvania businesses can turn a tidy profit when they make contributions to school voucher programs? It’s true. When businesses contribute to scholarship/private school voucher organizations through Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement and...
Myth busting PA’s super voucher programs
We have developed this fact sheet, 2018-2019 Myth-busting PA's EITCOSTC Programs, to highlight very serious problems with Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit programs, which siphon $160 million/year out of the PA...
PA lawmakers should let the charter school expansion bill die.
Lawmakers will be in Harrisburg for just nine days before the end of the 2017-2018 legislative session. Any bill that isn’t passed into law by the end of this session will have to start all over again next year. This means that House Bill 97, the charter school...
PA’s school funding lawsuit moves one step closer to trial!
The beginning of the school year coincides with good news for Pennsylvania’s public school students. On Tuesday, August 21, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court removed a major barrier that has kept the school funding lawsuit from going to trial! The court rejected a...
School funding lawsuit briefs show funding is getting worse
Last week petitioners in Pennsylvania's school funding lawsuit filed a brief and affidavits refuting the claim made by the Republican leader of the PA Senate, Joe Scarnati, that the lawsuit was rendered moot because the state adopted a school funding formula in 2016....
How did public school students do in the 2018-2019 PA budget?
As we head into summer, public education advocates should be proud that their hard work over the past year has paid off. The thousands of phone calls you made and emails you sent from every corner of the commonwealth have kept anti-public education legislation from...
ALERT-A brand new assault on PA’s public schools
On Tuesday, June 12, the PA Senate Education Committee will consider Senate Bill 1198, legislation that would: Continue to mandate labeling schools as successful or failing based primarily on students’ standardized test scores using the School Performance Profile...
A new partnership, a new poll, and a school funding lawsuit update
Education Voters of PA, like many other small non-profit organizations, works with a fiscal sponsor, a larger organization that provides services and supports that allow us to focus on our mission rather than on bookkeeping and administrative duties. I am pleased to...