Members of Philadelphia’s delegation to Harrisburg joined members of the city teachers’ union Friday in support of more funding to repair and better maintain some of the city’s aging school buildings.

Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D), hosting the rally in her district, spoke about the need to fund $170 million in improvements and new hires outside of Francis Scott Key Elementary in South Philly, the oldest school building in the city.

Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) is one state lawmaker who hopes to protect victims of sexual assault and make it easier for them to report incidents on college campuses.
 
As part of Pennsylvania’s It’s On Us initiative to prevent sexual assault on college and university campuses, Baker has introduced a bill that would establish an online reporting system for instances of sexual harassment and assault on postsecondary institutions in Pennsylvania. 

For Louis Lepley, superintendent of the North Star School District, attracting and retaining teachers in his rural Somerset County district can be a tall task.

“You can’t blame them, we’re not one of the higher paying districts in the state, and when [teachers] get that experience then we see a lot of them leave,” Lepley said. “And hats off to them--unless they have local ties, there’s a good chance they’re leaving.”

A boost in funding for education, expanding initiatives to target the state’s workforce development, and a previously announced minimum wage hike are cornerstones of Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2019-20 budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday in the first budget address of the governor’s second term.

Wolf’s plan spends a little over $34 billion, a 2.79 percent increase from last year, but adds in no new taxes, something he touted early and often throughout his address and was a line which drew a bipartisan standing ovation. 

Advocates are calling for more of an investment in career and technical education (CTE) in the upcoming budget, and lawmakers say they are optimistic Gov. Tom Wolf will agree when he unveils his proposal next month.

A report released by the Pennsylvania Partnership for Children earlier last week praised the introduction of the Career and Technical Education Subsidy in the last budget but argued that school districts were still footing too much of the bill and that more state support is needed.