NEWS
New Report: Pennsylvania Distributes Emergency K-12 School Funding Backwards—The Fewest Dollars Go to School Districts With the Greatest Need
Last week our partners at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center released a report that found Pennsylvania allocated $174 million of federal COVID-19 aid backwards—with the fewest dollars going to school districts with the greatest need. We flagged this issue after...
Webinar: Lifting the Curtain on Cruelty and Death in Pennsylvania’s Horse Racing Industry
Since 2004, more than $3 billion in taxpayer money has been funneled into The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund (RHDF), which provides $240 million every year in taxpayer funding to subsidize Pennsylvania’s horse racing industry. The bulk of...
Learn more about Pennsylvania’s School Funding Lawsuit!
Public education advocates can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that school privatization crusader Betsy DeVos will be going back to private life in January, where she can enjoy her yacht, vacation homes, and whatever other luxuries her Amway fortune can buy. A few...
Nearly $475 million increase in charter school tuition predicted for 2020-2021
The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) recently released an important study about increased charter and cyber charter school tuition payments for the 2020-2021 school year. PASBO predicts that school district payments to charter schools will...
Tell PA lawmakers to fund kids over horse racing
A little-known taxpayer-funded public trough called the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund (PRHDF) provides $240 million every year in government subsidies to wealthy horse racing enthusiasts and hobbyists. Since the fund's inception in 2004, more than...
Tell PA lawmakers—Choose public schools, not DeVos vouchers
UPDATE: The House Education Committee pulled House Bill 2696 from the agenda for its meeting on Thursday, October 1. Our advocacy is working. But the fight is not over. The Senate Education Committee will be holding a hearing on the DeVos voucher bill on Monday,...
Blistering court decision stops DeVos from looting public schools
We are delighted to have some very good news to share! This week a federal judge issued a blistering decision that temporarily stops Betsy DeVos from taking federal COVID-19 aid away from the poorest students in order to provide well-off children in private/religious...
A school year like no other
Families are preparing for a school year that will be unlike any other. Because Pennsylvania provides grossly inadequate funding to public education, school administrators have spent their summers operating within the constraints of very tight budgets and uncertain...
Betsy DeVos is looting PA Public Schools
If DeVos is allowed to push her school privatization agenda, public schools that educate Pennsylvania’s poorest students will lose approximately $50 million in federal COVID-19 aid.
New report suggests charters are gaming PA’s special education funding system
A new report issued by Education Voters of PA finds charter school enrollment patterns are consistent with the likelihood that many charter schools are exploiting the state’s special education funding system by cherry picking students with low-cost special education...
Public Schools Need Additional Federal Aid to Open Safely
Please contact Senators Toomey and Casey tell them that Pennsylvania’s schools need additional federal aid to open safely.
Black Lives Matter
Education Voters of PA stands in solidarity with communities that are protesting for an end to police violence against Black men, women, and children and are working to build a more just society where everyone, no matter the color of their skin, can live without fear...
PA legislature passes stopgap budget with flat funding for education
On May 29th, Governor Wolf signed a stopgap budget that was passed by the General Assembly. This budget provides five months of flat funding for most state programs and a full twelve months of flat funding for public education. There are no cuts to basic and special...
School funding should be spent on students, not charter school advertising
Cyber charter schools are aggressively hunting for students to fill their schools and their bank accounts and they are using your tax dollars to do it. What they aren’t telling parents is that EVERY. SINGLE. CYBER. CHARTER. is on the list of the worst schools in the...
PA to receive $523.8 million in one-time emergency federal COVID-19 relief funding for education
This week, the US Department of Education (USDE) approved Pennsylvania’s application for the commonwealth’s share of COVID-19 relief funding for schools in the CARES Act. The CARES Act will provide $523.8 million to Pennsylvania through the Elementary and Secondary...
ACT NOW to prevent catastrophic cuts to your local public schools
This week we learned the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on our public schools. The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) estimates that school districts will lose between $850 million to $1.07 billion in local revenue alone in the...
Take Action: Tell your members of Congress to provide more federal funding to school districts
Please send a letter to your members of Congress asking them to support additional, robust federal aid to school districts in the next phase of emergency COVID-19 legislation.
To help all students, PA needs to establish a remote learning task force
It has been just over a week since Governor Wolf announced that schools would be closed for the rest of the academic year. This has brought sadness and a deep sense of loss to students, families, and educators.
Thank you PA educators, parents, and volunteers!
In every corner of the commonwealth school administrators, teachers, and staff along with parents and community volunteers have come together to support Pennsylvania's students in countless different ways. These challenging times are showing the vital importance of...
PA legislature passes emergency school code legislation
On Wednesday, March 25th, the PA House and Senate passed emergency legislation that provides clarity and certainty for Pennsylvania’s educational system as school officials face unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 school closures. This legislation keeps...