Current:Home > InvestStalled schools legislation advances in Pennsylvania as lawmakers try to move past budget feud -MarketStream
Stalled schools legislation advances in Pennsylvania as lawmakers try to move past budget feud
View
Date:2025-04-17 19:21:25
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s state Senate moved past a longstanding budget feud Wednesday and approved school-funding legislation that would send millions more to subsidize private school tuition and create a student-teacher stipend to try to stem a shortage of teachers.
In addition to subsidies for private schools and student teachers, it also ties up some loose ends from a nearly five-month-old dispute over elements of the state’s spending plan for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate, 43-7, and goes to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Those include allowing more than $300 million to flow to libraries and community colleges, as well as $100 million in federal aid to flow to school mental health services and $75 million to clean up lead, asbestos, mold and other environmental health hazards in school buildings.
Previous versions of the bill had stalled, until Democrats dropped a provision that Republicans opposed to send another $100 million to the poorest public schools.
Under the bill, the state will expand a tax credit program by $130 million — from $340 million to $470 million — that allows businesses to receive tax breaks in exchange for donating money to defray the cost of tuition at private and religious schools.
Public school advocates have criticized the program as discriminatory, saying many of the eligible schools cherry-pick the students they want to teach and have policies that discriminate on the basis of religion, LGBTQ+ status, disability or another reason.
The tax credit program is championed primarily by Republicans, who agreed to concessions sought by Democrats.
Those include scaling back the amount of money that middleman administrators can keep — from 20% down to 10% — and requiring the disclosure of more demographic information about the students who benefit. The bill also boosts the amount of tax credits from $12 million to $60 million for donations that go to private schools that serve a larger proportion of students from lower-income families.
To encourage more college students to become teachers, the bill would create a program to give a stipend of up to $15,000 to student teachers.
With numerous schools having difficulty hiring or retaining teachers, the stipends are aimed at easing a hardship for college students finishing up a teaching degree who each must student-teach in schools for 12 weeks without pay.
veryGood! (998)
Related
- A Georgia governor’s latest work after politics: a children’s book on his cats ‘Veto’ and ‘Bill’
- Stock market today: Asian stocks mixed in muted holiday trading as 2023 draws to a close
- 'How I Met Your Father' star Francia Raísa needs salsa, friends like Selena Gomez to get by
- Grace Bowers is the teenage guitar phenom who plays dive bars at night
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- Bill Maher promotes junk science in opposing lifesaving research tests on animals
- 20 fillings, 4 root canals, 8 crowns in one visit add up to lawsuit for Minnesota dentist
- At least 20 killed in Congo flooding and landslides, bringing this week’s fatalities to over 60
- Michigan lawmaker who was arrested in June loses reelection bid in Republican primary
- Alabama aims to get medical marijuana program started in 2024
Ranking
- Vance jokes he’s checking out his future VP plane while overlapping with Harris at Wisconsin airport
- Ex-gang leader’s own words are strong evidence to deny bail in Tupac Shakur killing, prosecutors say
- As Gaza war grinds on, tensions soar along Israel’s volatile northern border with Lebanon
- 50 years ago, Democrats and Republicans agreed to protect endangered species
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Out of office? Not likely. More than half of Americans worked while on vacation in 2023
- Perspective: Children born poor have little margin for mistakes or bad decisions, regardless of race
- Mbongeni Ngema, South African playwright and creator of ‘Sarafina!’, is killed in a car crash at 68
Recommendation
Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
Civil rights leader removed from movie theater for using his own chair
Lulus’ End of the Year Sale Shines with $17 Dresses, $15 Bodysuits, $11 Tops & More
Stock market today: Stocks edge higher in muted holiday trading on Wall Street
Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
House where 4 Idaho students were slain is being demolished despite families' concerns
Mom says pregnant Texas teen found shot to death with boyfriend was just there at the wrong time
Miller Moss, Caleb Williams' replacement, leads USC to Holiday Bowl win vs. Louisville