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Education
Pennsylvania’s Education Tax Credit Scholarships: How EITC Serves Children and Families in the Commonwealth
Key Findings Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) are state tax credit programs that give thousands of low- to middle- income students access to…
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Education
Lifeline (PASS) Scholarship Program
Overview Lifeline Scholarships, also known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) program, would offer an Education Opportunity Account (EOA) to any student residing in a school ranked in…
Fact Sheet
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Lifeline Scholarship Program
Overview Lifeline Scholarships (Senate Bill 795 and House Bill 1432) offer an Education Opportunity Account (EOA) to students residing in a school ranked in the bottom 15 percent…
Fact Sheet
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How Pa. Can Show it is Open for Business
Summary Pennsylvania’s economy is performing poorly with high unemployment, low labor force participation, and lackluster job growth. Roughly 40,000 residents left the state last year because of poor economic conditions…
Fact Sheet
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Assisting Students in Economically Disadvantaged Schools
Overview The Economically Disadvantaged School component of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) provides supplementary scholarships for Pennsylvania students receiving scholarships and attending private schools with the greatest financial need.
Fact Sheet
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Education Choice Myths and Facts
School Choice Saves Money While Saving Kids School choice reforms are significantly less costly than average per-pupil spending at public schools, which is over $21,200.[1] In contrast, the…
Fact Sheet
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Pa. Education Funding Spikes Again
Key Points Pennsylvania school district spending per student increased to $21,263 in 2021–22. State support of public education is up 55.7 percent over the last decade, reaching an all-time high…
Backgrounder
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Education Opportunity Accounts in Practice
Key Points Education Opportunity Accounts (EOAs) are transformative, flexible-use accounts funded by state tax dollars.Program Administration: The Pennsylvania Treasury is the ideal administrator at the state level and may contract…
Backgrounder
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Expanding Health Care Access: The Easy Way
Key Findings Full practice authority for nurse practitioners (NPs) would increase the amount of time NPs can see patients by about 45 minutes each week.This translates into almost one more…
Executive Summary
Read More: Expanding Health Care Access: The Easy WayPublic Union Democracy
HB 950: A Power Grab for Union Executives at the Expense of Workers
Summary House Bill 950 proposes an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution creating a “fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively” for both private and public sector employees.[1]The…
Fact Sheet
Read More: HB 950: A Power Grab for Union Executives at the Expense of WorkersPublic Union Democracy
Pennsylvania House Labor & Industry Committee Testimony on HB 950
Chairmen Dawkins and Mackenzie: Good afternoon. Thanks to Chairmen Dawkins and Mackenzie for the invitation to testify on this resolution, and thanks to the rest of the committee for your…
Testimony
Read More: Pennsylvania House Labor & Industry Committee Testimony on HB 950Welfare
Unwinding Medicaid Continuous Enrollment
Summary On April 1, Pennsylvania returned to normal Medicaid eligibility rules and began a year-long process of redetermining eligibility for all 3.68 million beneficiaries.Medicaid spending grows faster than our state…
Fact Sheet
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Common Ground in the Commonwealth Poll Findings
Summary The Common Ground in the Commonwealth Poll, conducted March 24-29, is the first in a series of quarterly surveys taking the pulse of voters on the “state of the…
Memo
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Minimum Wage
Summary One percent of Pennsylvania workers earn the minimum wage, an all-time low.Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Recent analysis by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal…
Fact Sheet
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Government Union Political Spending in the 2021–22 Election Cycle
Key Points Government unions are a top interest group in Pennsylvania, spending more than $190 million on politics since 2007. Government union political action committee (PAC) spending continues to increase,…
Backgrounder
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Fiscal Impact of School Choice
Summary Tax credit scholarships and Education Opportunity Accounts (EOAs) provide students with educational opportunity at a fraction of what public schools cost, generating significant savings for taxpayers. Educational choice programs…
Fact Sheet
Read More: Fiscal Impact of School ChoiceProsperity
Tearing Down Barriers to Prosperity: How More Economic Freedom Can Reduce Poverty and Boost Prosperity in Pennsylvania
Key Findings Economic freedom, specifically lower government spending, strongly and consistently offers both increases in prosperity and reductions in poverty.States that gained economic freedom from 2010 to 2019 tend to…
Executive Summary
Read More: Tearing Down Barriers to Prosperity: How More Economic Freedom Can Reduce Poverty and Boost Prosperity in PennsylvaniaProsperity
Tearing Down the Barriers to Prosperity: What Pennsylvanians Say About Poverty and Prosperity
Unlike most reports on poverty, this report combines statistics, a survey of Pennsylvanians with income below 200 percent of the poverty line, and in-depth interviews to identify common barriers to…
Executive Summary
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Review of Regulation Constitutional Amendment
What is the Constitutional Amendment on Legislative Review of Regulations? This amendment would allow the legislature to reject a proposed regulation by passing a concurrent resolution with a simple majority…
Backgrounder
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Speaker Rozzi’s Listening Tour Testimony
Mr. Speaker and members of the working group, thank you for allowing Commonwealth Foundation to provide brief comments on the importance of the house returning to work. My name is…
Testimony
Read More: Speaker Rozzi’s Listening Tour TestimonyFairness
Voter ID Constitutional Amendment
Key Points Voter ID requirements improve election integrity, while voter turnout increases, without impacting election outcomes.Pennsylvania voters support Voter ID requirements by a wide margin, with support across all regions…
Backgrounder
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Assessing Gov. Tom Wolf’s Tenure
Key Points During Gov. Tom Wolf’s eight years in office, Pennsylvania ranked below the national average in income growth, job growth, and population growth.State government spending increased significantly under Wolf,…
Backgrounder
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