Blue Pennsylvania: Stories and More

Two simultaneous gatherings at the Capitol Building this past Tuesday in Harrisburg provided a rather poignant portrait of what the budget battle in Harrisburg is shaping up to look like this year. 

On the steps inside of the rotunda, transport workers and their allies rallied around a series of speeches discussing the importance of public transportation, not only to the two major metropolitan areas that bookend our state, but to the health of the economy of the commonwealth.

Meanwhile, speakers exhorted hundreds of students, parents, and educators through the wind driven rain on the steps to the building, to assure that – at the very least – Pennsylvania remains on track to provide adequate and equitable funding to every school district in the state by 2031.

Later that day, at a lunch sponsored by POWER Interfaith, the audience listened to a report of a conversation with one legislator about his belief that Republican lawmakers wish to pit education and transportation advocates against one another for a finite pool of money.

Such cynicism eventually takes its toll.  Inquirer readers were presented this past Sunday, with the story of Kalorena Gonzalez, a student at Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia, who has not had a permanent English teacher in her school since October.  Her substitutes have basically been place-holders, who have done little more than take roll.  Yet, she, as well as all the other students in the class are expected to take the Keystone exams, which, she is certain, she is bound to fail.

As troubling as her story is, there are even darker tales in the district.  At the April budget meeting of the Philadelphia Board of Education, a senior who attends the Academy at Palumbo High School, and who suffers from mobility problems, testified how it was nearly impossible to negotiate the five floors she needed get to her classes.  Although the school has an elevator for students with such problems, it has been out-of-order.  And although this student was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, the school has not had the resources to properly address those problems.  Her frustrations grew to such an extent that by October, she had tried to take her own life. 

And it’s not only the education and transportation sectors that will be affected by the upcoming fiscal realities facing the commonwealth.  Governor Shapiro reported this week that the anticipated federal cuts in Medicaid funding will result in the loss of billions of dollars to Pennsylvania while hundreds of thousands of people will lose their insurance.  Struggling hospitals, particularly in rural areas, will likely be shuttered.

Republican response to these tragic events is to provide comic relief in the guise of solutions.  In this morning’s Inquirer, Jesse Topper, the Republican leader in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, wrote that SEPTA should begin to privatize its operations.  Meanwhile, the same edition reported that Governor Shapiro exhorted lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at limiting the type of damage that privatization has done to shutter the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Republicans claim the state is suffering from a structural deficit that prevents them from providing any meaningful increases to the state budget.  But we have also reported on a number of additional revenue streams that could provide for a budget surplus.

One of those suggestions was the legalization and taxation of marijuana, which could increase state income somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion annually.  A cannabis legalization bill sponsored by Rick Krajewski passed the State House last week, but was defeated in the Republican dominated Law & Justice Committee of the State Senate on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, there is one step that the legislature can take which will be cost neutral to the state while creating healthier fund balances for Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts.  That action involves legislation which would place a ceiling (the most popular discussed amount is $8000/pupil) on reimbursement that cyber charters can collect from school districts.  Although some Republicans have acknowledged that there is a problem with cyber charter reimbursement, they have been slow to act.

Although all of the problems mentioned above are real, and cited solutions have merit, conservatives still prefer to promote fairytales as fact.  The Commonwealth Foundation, which has connections to Jeffrey Yass, has been putting truth through the sausage mill to produce a screed of misinformation about Governor Shapiro and his budget priorities.  We can counter their lies.  Here is how.

Actions:

The Pennsylvania Policy Center has a page where you can write to your legislators directly to ask them to support Governor Shapiro’s education budget for this year.  It does not matter where you live, just as long as you are a resident of Pennsylvania.  It takes a few seconds if you use the generic language, but you can personalize it, and if you have a little extra time, that would be a good thing to do.  When you are done, get others to do the same.  You can access that page here. 

If you would like to take the above advocacy to the next level, we will be canvassing in Northeast Philadelphia and in Pottstown after the primary.  If you would like to join us, you can sign up here.

On a different note, if you are looking for a way to oppose the Trump-Republican budget, please join us for a Good Trouble Phone Bank during the next few weeks. SIGN UP HERE (The location will be disclosed once you register).

We’ll be making calls in partnership with Senator Art Haywood, Neighborhood Networks, the Pennsylvania Policy Center and Action Together NEPA. Our calls will be focused in targeted Congressional districts where constituent pressure will be most impactful. We’ll be asking constituents to contact their own representatives to oppose cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. 

You don’t have to be an expert on policy or phone banking.

We’ll provide phone banking support. You bring your laptop, phone, earbuds, and concern for your fellow Pennsylvanians. Please join us: SIGN UP HERE.

Finally, it seems that we have been doing such a good job getting the word out about judicial retention, that a number of people have been asking why they have not seen anything about it on their mail-in ballots.  The simple reason is that the judicial retention questions are not on the ballot for this primary, but they will be on the ballot in the general election six months from now.  So, don’t worry about missing out on these retention questions, but make sure to get your friends, relatives, and neighbors to vote “Yes” on these questions come November.