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Pedestrians walk past the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg in this file photo. A number of lawmakers sit on a new commission that is overseeing an effort to re-think the Pennsylvania education system.
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New Pa. commission quietly delves into 'transforming' state approach to education

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

New Pa. commission quietly delves into 'transforming' state approach to education

Quietly, after a couple of hiccups and despite the imminent departure of its first leader, a broad-based and bipartisan effort to create a new proposed approach to education in Pennsylvania is underway.

Acting under the umbrella name Pennsylvania Commission on Education and Economic Competitiveness – and brought to life by a law signed in mid-2022 by then-Gov. Tom Wolf – dozens of power players in various segments of society are meeting regularly. The plan, as spelled out on the commission’s Republican-controlled website, is to “create a shared long-term vision to redesign Pennsylvania’s education system.”

“The effort is not about tinkering with the existing system, it is about transforming it,’ said Amy Morton, a former state education official who now works for an education nonprofit hired to facilitate the effort.

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The commission was conceived in part by Republican Sen. Ryan Aument of Lancaster County, who ran the first, virtual meeting on June 8, 2023 and a second more than eight months later. At that second session, Mr. Aument led the group through a revised motion on hiring a consultant to work on the project.

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Recently, Mr. Aument announced he would resign from the Senate effective Dec. 31 to take a job working for newly elected U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick.

In a statement, he said the need for the commission’s work “extends beyond the term of any one legislator” and he was confident the group would produce “a collaborative and comprehensive roadmap for redesigning Pennsylvania’s education system.”

Going by descriptions given in interviews with Ms. Morton and Sherri Smith, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, the work is going full bore.

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The commission itself is comprised of lawmakers and members of the administration. But the bulk of the hashing-out discussions are being carried out by a “Subcommittee on Education Planning.”

The list of involved organizations is far-reaching: Pitt, Temple, Penn State, and Lincoln universities; associations for school board members, principals, school administrators, and school business officials; teachers unions; the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau; the NAACP Pennsylvania conference; the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association; and many others.

Ms. Morton helped run the first online group meeting of the subcommittee in May. She is a lifelong Pennsylvania resident who held positions in the state Department of Education under former Govs. Tom Corbett, Ed Rendell, and Tom Ridge.

She now works on the Pennsylvania team of the National Center on Education and the Economy, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit hired to facilitate the commission’s work. She said there were three lengthy, in-person meetings in August, September and October, she said.

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Now, the subcommittee has divided into four work groups. Ms. Smith, who is representing PASA on the subcommittee, said the work is going “very well.”

The commission web page shows video only of the first informational meeting of the subcommittee held May 30. Ms. Smith said her feeling is that there is no need to post video of the ongoing subcommittee meetings.

“The work is internal right now,” Ms. Smith said.

There have been a few bumps along the way.

The original legislation called for an initial meeting of the commission by Feb. 17, 2023, but the meeting did not happen until June, 2023.

At that meeting, the commission approved a motion to let its co-chairs – Mr. Aument and Democratic Rep. Peter Schweyer of Lehigh County – enter into a contract with a consultant. At the next meeting more than eight months later, the commission adopted a different motion to hire a consultant.

Mr. Aument explained that “there have been statutory changes that, rather than the two chairmen exclusively making that decision, it is the decision of the full commission to enter into an agreement” with a contractor.

That contractor was NCEE, Ms. Morton’s organization. The only ‘no’ vote on the hiring was cast by commission member Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny.

Mr. Aument also told the group at the meeting in March, 2024, that he had not wanted the commission to interfere with the work of the Basic Education Funding Commission. BEFC was a completely separate group – but with some of the same members – that held 14 hearings in late 2023 and came up with a basic education funding approach that had a heavy influence on the vastly increased education spending in the 2024-25 state budget.

The extended deadline for the commission’s work is for it to have a report with recommendations on legislation to the General Assembly by Nov. 1, 2025.

The administration of Mr. Shapiro will have a major influence on what happens next. Asked about the commission, a spokesperson for Mr. Shapiro, Manuel Bonder, pointed to the numerous significant changes in education that already have happened since Mr. Shapiro took office in 2023.

“The Shapiro administration firmly believes that every Pennsylvanian deserves the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed,” Mr. Bonder said. The administration, he said, has been moving “full speed ahead” to create those opportunities.

He pointed to a boost of more than $1.5 billion in education spending for schools and the investing of about $65 million to get career and technical education back into classrooms. Among other things, he said, “Pennsylvania has registered over 74 apprenticeship programs and enrolled nearly 11,460 new apprentices since Governor Shapiro took office.”

The achievements in higher education cited by Mr. Bonder included this year’s creation of the State Board of Higher Education, and the called-for formation of the Outcomes-Based Funding Council that will deal with funding for state-related universities.

Mr. Bonder said the administration appreciated “the purpose” of the Commission on Education and Economic Competitiveness and hopes “that its work will complement the work the Shapiro administration has done and will continue to do to deliver real freedom and opportunity to Pennsylvanians.”

First Published: December 23, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: December 23, 2024, 8:42 p.m.

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Pedestrians walk past the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg in this file photo. A number of lawmakers sit on a new commission that is overseeing an effort to re-think the Pennsylvania education system.  (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
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