Students deserve more from our higher education system. This spring, COVID-19 upended almost every aspect of our lives. Our normal routines became anything but, and we began to adjust to a new reality of working and, for our nation’s students, schooling from home. As schools grapple with what “back to school” means this year, students […]
The Edward H. Arnold Institute for Policy Studies
Community And School Libraries Connect Our Past And Future
We tend to think about lessons from the coronavirus pandemic in terms of health care provision and capacity, vaccine research, and the jarring collision of science and politics as difficult choices are made. Looking beyond health care, we see stark reminders of the price paid for failure to value and invest in community institutions that […]
Time To Cull The Herd And Redraw School District Lines
“We are all in this together” had a regrettably short shelf-life as a modern national anthem. In an era when politics is driven by dark impulses of division far more than the illuminating virtues of unity, a mere cameo appearance by the spirit of collective action is not surprising. But it surely is disappointing and […]
Visionary Public Plan For State Parks Emerges; Can Bake Sales And Car Washes Pay For It?
Every state disagreement over issue priority, policy direction, and funding level has been compounded greatly by the monumental uncertainties of coronavirus. Months of restrictions on institutions, businesses, and workers have punched a gigantic hole in the state budget, reported as upwards of $3 billion for the just completed fiscal year. Advocates who for years have […]
So Many To Thank. . . Don’t Forget Local Government
Pennsylvania Local Government Week is April 6-10, and we can think of no better time to recognize our townships, which are on the front lines of making sure life goes on as smoothly and safely as possible in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the COVID-19 emergency continues throughout the nation and the […]
Sunshine Week Promotes Open Government Year Round
Sunshine Week is celebrated in March. Given declining civics instruction, duly note this observance does not mark the end of winter as predicted by various groundhogs. Surely, it is overshadowed by St. Patrick’s Day. As public interest observances go, it should be a red-letter date. The Sunshine Law guarantees our access to public meetings. We […]
No Sure Bet: Student Scholarships Riding on Raiding Horse Money
Coming off several years of notorious lack of success at shackling a mounting pile of urgent infrastructure needs to imposing a severance tax on gas drilling, Governor Wolf is apparently undeterred. Not only has he revved up Restore PA for another run, he is jumping into the same strategy pool again. His daily double for […]
Trusting Counties With Greater Financial Responsibility
Pennsylvania’s longest-running tax dispute pertains to the heavy dependence on property taxes to fund public education. Persistent public antipathy and active litigation make property taxes for schools the all-consuming controversy. That does not mean other local tax systems are up to snuff and non-contentious. County commissioners are laying out their 2020 legislative agenda. Due […]
Demeaning Sound Science Harms Public Policy And Education
Sam Cooke’s 1960 hit song – What A Wonderful World – starts with a series of disclaimers, including these: “…Don’t know much biology; Don’t know much about a science book…Don’t know much trigonometry; Don’t know much about algebra…” As has been proved billions of times, kindling romance does not require a science text or […]
Giving Rural Pennsylvania A Fair Chance For A Future
“Life is unfair,” famously intoned by President Jimmy Carter (and others), is an indisputable proposition. These days, expressions of unfairness are on the rise. In public debates of any gravity, someone invariably claims unfairness in framing their grievance. Ubiquity by no means guarantees equal justification or attention. Invoked too frequently and casually, it can […]