00:01 - Good afternoon, and welcome to our afternoon hearing on

00:04 - what is day two of week two of our budget hearings.

00:10 - We are so glad to be joined by our friends over at the Department of Education.

00:14 - So glad to hear Secretary Rowe here and all of the folks from the department.

00:20 - Before we get started.

00:22 - Chairman Strozzi, any introductory comments?

00:25 - Thank you, Chairman Harris.

00:26 - Good afternoon everyone. Welcome.

00:29 - The governor is proposing to spend $18.92 billion

00:34 - of the general fund in the upcoming fiscal year for pre-K education,

00:39 - an increase of 884 million, or 4.4%, over the current fiscal year.

00:45 - Pre-K through 12 spending represents

00:47 - nearly 36% of the overall state budget, a roughly 12 billion of that is for basic

00:53 - education funding, special education funding, and Ready to Learn block grants.

00:58 - Obviously we understand,

01:02 - the significant increase that's before us.

01:05 - The discussions that have occurred in the past on the adequacy, funding.

01:10 - But I think we're still very concerned with these increases, given

01:13 - that, you know, we are spending more than we have in this current budget,

01:17 - that the governor is proposing to drain the,

01:20 - the rainy day fund significantly,

01:22 - spend the rest of our surplus to meet these increased spending requests.

01:27 - So I think we're going to have a very rigorous discussion today

01:30 - on on these funding amounts.

01:33 - I look forward to that discussion and we'll move forward.

01:37 - Thank you.

01:41 - Thank the gentleman.

01:46 - I just lost my train of thought.

01:47 - Just a quick.

01:47 - All right, so in the middle of the table,

01:51 - there are, there's our timekeeper.

01:54 - When our members start, they'll have five minutes.

01:56 - Tax questions. The light will be green.

01:58 - And then if the like, when the light turns yellow, that means there's 30s left.

02:02 - And when it is red, we would ask that you would conclude

02:05 - with your comments

02:08 - before we begin, if we can have our testifiers

02:10 - stand so I can swear everybody in and then we can get started.

02:22 - Do you solemnly swear that the testimony

02:24 - you're about to give us the truth, the whole truth, so help you God?

02:27 - Please be seated.

02:36 - Secretary,

02:36 - I'm told that you have a statement that you would like to share.

02:41 - Before we begin with questions,

02:43 - you may proceed.

02:53 - That's a trick.

02:53 - Microphone.

02:56 - Is it?

02:56 - I don't.

03:11 - It says

03:12 - you're good here.

03:20 - Pull out the cartridge and blow in it like.

03:25 - Oh, I was, that one's on.

03:28 - Whenever you did, you'll learn what I attributed to makeup.

03:31 - I don't think.

03:32 - I don't think it really was every work touching

03:35 - the court work.

03:39 - Yep. We're good.

03:45 - Sir, you have,

03:47 - my written testimony already, and I am excited to share

03:52 - some of the things that we have been doing and to answer

03:55 - questions about the budget as we move forward.

03:58 - I'm not sure that, any additional preamble is, is needed at this point.

04:04 - All right, let's rock and roll. Representative Webster.

04:08 - Thanks. Mr.

04:08 - chairman.

04:09 - I think we all also acknowledge the representative

04:12 - from Lehigh and Northampton who did something there.

04:14 - And and then thank you for.

04:17 - That's right.

04:20 - I have I have a long list

04:21 - of, of questions and it's going to be a long, a long afternoon.

04:25 - I apologize that, but I'll start with just a couple of statements.

04:30 - I also represent as to a couple of my other colleagues

04:33 - in Norristown area schools and adequacy funding is dramatically important.

04:38 - It's had an impact.

04:40 - I just want to this is a statement,

04:43 - that school district's been underfunded for 30 years.

04:46 - The adequacy funding is helping.

04:48 - I don't want anybody to panic.

04:49 - It's time that, you know, keep stay with it.

04:52 - Stick it out.

04:53 - If you if you enter those schools, you'll see energy.

04:56 - You'll see a faculty that's expired. Yeah.

04:59 - It's going in the right direction.

05:00 - So thank you for that.

05:03 - Second similar statement.

05:05 - Our state library I know that falls under your department.

05:09 - I know it's flat funded.

05:11 - It's it's a an enormous treasure for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

05:16 - And anything we can do to to help them see the future and maintain

05:20 - those, those resources they have is a powerful statement.

05:24 - And I would encourage that kind of thinking.

05:27 - We need to give them a little bit more.

05:28 - And, and, and I think throughout the community here

05:32 - on like on this Capitol campus, we're under utilizing the state Library.

05:37 - There's, there's so there's capability there.

05:40 - We should all be taken advantage of. Okay,

05:43 - that the public service announcement is concluded,

05:46 - and I apologize for that.

05:49 - I do want to talk about public libraries.

05:51 - And libraries and librarians have been enormously

05:54 - influential in my lifetime. And,

05:59 - our public

05:59 - libraries and that subsidy, got a little bit of a bump last year.

06:03 - I was very supportive, I think an extra $5 million.

06:07 - That kind of gets us almost to where we would have been

06:10 - 20 years ago in terms of,

06:14 - supporting and subsidizing our public libraries.

06:16 - And from every stage of development, when we see

06:21 - children in the library, when we see seniors and adults in the library,

06:25 - I want to, you know, sort of ask that question.

06:28 - And how do we prioritize and, and support

06:32 - additional funding for our public libraries?

06:37 - Well,

06:37 - I think you hit on something that we all recognize that, libraries,

06:41 - like schools, are often the backbone of of any community.

06:45 - They build skills for, all Pennsylvanians.

06:50 - They provide equitable access to resources, including our,

06:55 - government information.

06:58 - Libraries also introduce literacy to new parents,

07:03 - infants and toddlers through storytimes

07:06 - and activities and free books and enrichment programs.

07:12 - They provide access to computers and internet resources.

07:17 - They provide support for job seekers and,

07:22 - all learners for skill building.

07:26 - We often find them being gathering places in the community.

07:30 - That so-called third space, that seems to be missing in a lot of ways.

07:35 - There are preferred location for,

07:38 - aging populations to find connections.

07:41 - So I took the time to kind of lay that out, because I believe that

07:46 - across the age span from literally from from birth through,

07:52 - our aging population, they provide something special to the community.

07:58 - Books are the backbone of libraries, but there is so much more.

08:03 - And libraries have been flexible

08:06 - in, what they've provided to to the communities over the years.

08:13 - Again, starting out

08:14 - with, keeping the resources and primarily books.

08:18 - But then understanding that we're in a digital age.

08:20 - And so we need to provide digital resources and taking up

08:23 - that mantle and, providing, space for,

08:30 - for all learners.

08:32 - So the whenever we can move toward providing equitable,

08:37 - fiscal resources for them.

08:39 - That's absolutely money well spent and clearly a great return on investment.

08:44 - So I do I understand, alongside of that, you know, the resources

08:49 - and there's also, some new regulations on libraries at work.

08:54 - Is there,

08:56 - any input on timing or where those are?

08:59 - That's right.

08:59 - We are working on new regulations.

09:02 - The regulations haven't been updated for, quite some time.

09:06 - And so we want to not only bring the regulations to,

09:10 - in line with what it is that we're currently doing,

09:13 - but also then to have

09:15 - that visionary perspective of what is it that we want to see moving forward.

09:19 - So the regulations, although it is a slow and tedious process,

09:23 - it is certainly something that is necessary.

09:26 - And we're marching those through the process. Now.

09:29 - And I didn't hear

09:30 - real commitment on timing, but I appreciate what you're doing I bet.

09:34 - Thanks, Mr. Chairman. More to follow.

09:36 - Thank you. Gentlemen. Representative Cutts.

09:39 - Thank you chairman.

09:40 - Good afternoon. Secretary.

09:41 - Thank you so much for being here with your team.

09:43 - Let me first start out by saying I appreciate your efforts.

09:48 - Last year, as you know, I represent Cumberland Perry.

09:50 - Career, area, area.

09:51 - Career and tech center,

09:52 - Cumberland Valley School District, Mechanicsburg school district.

09:55 - You've been out to a number of our facilities.

09:57 - I appreciate your willingness to engage, particularly representing

10:02 - growing, a growing district, like Cumberland Valley,

10:05 - where we keep running out of space for all the kids that are there moving in.

10:09 - And let me start by saying, I know everyone in this room

10:12 - and in this chamber

10:13 - in General Assembly represents a different corner of the Commonwealth.

10:16 - Every child's need and every community's needs will be different.

10:20 - So there are schools that have stagnant and declining populations

10:24 - whose needs are going to be different than those in suburban Cumberland County,

10:27 - the 87th district I'm privileged to represent,

10:30 - and I think the bottom line is not enough kids read a grade level.

10:33 - And if we can get kids to read a grade level

10:36 - by third grade, the stats are astounding.

10:39 - At the improvements we can make.

10:41 - So everything we should be doing and as a general assembly,

10:44 - should be to make sure that our education system is a shining beacon

10:48 - that is successful for for every student in every corner of the Commonwealth.

10:52 - So with that being said, I want to focus in on the district

10:56 - that I represent.

10:57 - The 87th to Cumberland County,

10:59 - because I know our needs are going to be different.

11:02 - That being said, I want to ask about school facilities because,

11:07 - as we

11:08 - continue to grow, we have three I have three

11:11 - different districts, all of which are different stages of growth.

11:14 - We're floating nine figure bonds.

11:16 - So it is it is great if they're able to continue

11:20 - to get to get basic GED and ready to learn block grants.

11:23 - But when we're floating nine figure bonds to build schools

11:27 - that they can't build fast enough, they're opening at full capacity.

11:30 - I just toured construction last week at Eagle View and Green Ridge,

11:34 - and there is a plan ten years down the road to keep renovating buildings

11:38 - because they cannot build seats fast enough.

11:40 - Kids have been learning and modular learning for decades.

11:43 - So my question is, how can we well know?

11:48 - Number one, how how can we assess the infrastructure needs of schools,

11:53 - understanding that there are other issues that other older schools have

11:57 - that are aging?

11:58 - But for those and growing school districts only help me understand

12:02 - how can we as a state prioritize those buildings and those districts

12:07 - to ensure that growing districts continue to have enough seats for students?

12:13 - Because as we keep running out of out of seats, as buildings are opening

12:17 - and they're opening full capacity, that's not sustainable long term.

12:21 - And we have to keep floating nine figure bonds to get there.

12:23 - So can we just have a discussion about what

12:26 - the long term infrastructure funding could look like?

12:29 - And where do you see that fitting in to, education funding as a whole?

12:35 - Well, I agree with the entire preamble.

12:39 - As you as you were kind of reeling me into your into your question.

12:45 - Each type of school has its own particular need,

12:47 - and all of them need assistance related to facilities.

12:53 - We we know that in 2004,

12:57 - I think it now in again 2024,

13:00 - the department would at about $75 million,

13:05 - in funding related to infrastructure.

13:09 - It was everything from catastrophic needs,

13:12 - like a school district that had a flood to Hvac issues.

13:18 - If you ever go into a school and talk to a business

13:20 - or facilities manager and you say the word roof,

13:24 - look out, because that is such a costly thing,

13:28 - that everyone would under would understand the need.

13:32 - There.

13:33 - There's so many needs in schools.

13:36 - Your question relates to how do we know what's actually needed in the schools

13:43 - currently, we don't have a facilities,

13:48 - survey that would allow us to to know what all those needs are.

13:52 - I might suggest that that would be something to do moving forward.

13:55 - And there is a federal grant that the department has been working on.

14:00 - It's called the sassy Grant.

14:03 - And it allows us to look at

14:05 - 37 school districts that meet specific criteria

14:09 - and to actually walk through the process with them for determining what

14:13 - their facilities needs are as it pertains

14:16 - to, high quality outcomes for students.

14:19 - So, we might be able to extrapolate from that sassy grand

14:24 - what we could do to figure that out for the remaining 500

14:28 - and certainly benefit those who are growing as well.

14:32 - Thank you.

14:32 - I see I'm I'm short on time, so I will just ask,

14:36 - if we could have a follow up conversation about,

14:39 - kind of figuring out I think a facility survey sounds great.

14:41 - I think it's probably something that's needed

14:43 - so that we can tell when these areas are growing.

14:47 - They have the funding they need, both on the basic ed,

14:50 - special ed adequacy side as well as we continue to shrink that gap.

14:53 - And on the facility side.

14:54 - But I appreciate the, the conversation, your commitment to that.

14:58 - Chairman, thank you for the time.

15:01 - Thank the

15:01 - gentleman, Representative Salisbury.

15:04 - Thank you. Chairman.

15:06 - I, I would like to talk today a little bit about financial accountability

15:10 - for state dollars that go into public school districts.

15:13 - It's my understanding that just over a third of the $38.6

15:16 - billion that represents the revenue to public school districts come from

15:21 - comes from the state, which would be about 14.6 billion,

15:25 - with an increase from last year of about 665 million.

15:30 - And don't get me wrong, I think that schools should have that and much more.

15:34 - I very much believe in paying for education in the state,

15:37 - but I am concerned, about what I've learned this year

15:42 - about the fact that the Bureau of School Audits was done away

15:46 - with under the officer office of the Auditor General in 2022,

15:51 - in order to save $5 million, as my understanding, for budgetary costs,

15:56 - they got rid of the 46 auditors who worked in that department.

16:00 - My understanding is it was originally intended that the Department of

16:03 - Education would pick up the responsibility for the Bureau of School Audits.

16:08 - I wonder if you could speak a little bit

16:09 - about what the current state of how that's handled in Pennsylvania.

16:13 - Let me just start.

16:16 - So, it may have been,

16:22 - their plan

16:22 - for the Department of Education to take on that role.

16:26 - It's not my understanding that the department ever,

16:30 - received either the compliment positions

16:32 - or the funding to effectuate something like that.

16:36 - I will tell you that we work with school districts,

16:40 - routinely to,

16:42 - look at the problems that they might be experiencing.

16:45 - Or if a community member indicates that, that there are problems.

16:50 - Sometimes we hear from community members or school board members

16:54 - and they're indicating, potential issues.

16:59 - We're willing to

17:00 - work with them, to determine

17:03 - what technical assistance and support they might need,

17:07 - where we find that there are additional concerns beyond the scope

17:12 - of our current authority to act, we do have some additional avenues,

17:18 - to redirect,

17:20 - their inquiries and provide support.

17:23 - Does that answer your question, or would you like a little more depth?

17:26 - I guess what I'm wondering is, two things.

17:28 - One is what happens if a fraud, waste and abuse report is submitted.

17:32 - What's that workflow look like?

17:34 - And also, second, if we went from 46 full time auditors

17:39 - in the Bureau of School Audits to not having

17:42 - a Bureau of School audits at all, how many people have full time

17:46 - eyes on this task and full time eyes on the task would be very few.

17:50 - That part of your question is easy enough for me to answer.

17:54 - I think, our director,

17:56 - for budget would be able to shed a little bit of light

18:00 - on this specific process, and,

18:03 - I'll turn it to, just sites.

18:05 - Sure.

18:07 - About a year ago, we created a fraud, waste and abuse system.

18:12 - It's accessible through our public website.

18:15 - There is

18:16 - also a, there's also always the avenue

18:20 - of office of inspector general and the attorney general's office.

18:24 - But we did PD did create its own fraud, waste and abuse

18:27 - because of some internal control assessments that we had done.

18:32 - And so that tick that a ticketing system,

18:36 - if a constituent or a school district

18:39 - or anyone has a, fraud, waste

18:43 - and abuse complaint, they can put that into our system.

18:47 - And then that system is flagged by

18:50 - real people sitting in our compliance office at PD.

18:53 - And then it goes to my bureau or it goes to the Office of Elementary

18:58 - and Secondary Education to investigate.

19:03 - A lot of times it is, the ones that come to my bureau

19:07 - anyway, our financial, procurement, you

19:10 - know, bidding requirements, procurement requirements.

19:13 - And so when we get things like that,

19:17 - we do put them into a risk assessment,

19:21 - that flags other potential issues, either federal monitoring,

19:26 - findings and federal monitoring or,

19:29 - lateness of annual financial reports or single audits.

19:32 - And so we put that into a risk assessment and we do have a partnership

19:36 - with Bureau of Audits.

19:37 - Now the Secretary is absolutely right.

19:39 - We do not have the resources that the Auditor general had

19:44 - when they shut down, when they shut down the Bureau of School Audits,

19:48 - they had over 40 it like you said, they had over 40 people.

19:51 - Bureau of audits, I think currently has around

19:54 - ten, to build that staff.

19:58 - In 24, 25, they started doing audits for the department.

20:01 - And we do have a referral system.

20:03 - So we do have a partnership in place with Bureau of Audits,

20:07 - that sits in the office of the Budget, and they do audits

20:10 - for a wide variety of agencies, Commonwealth agencies.

20:14 - And so we've hit the red light.

20:15 - So thank you very much for your responses.

20:18 - Thank the gentlelady. Representative Q

20:21 - thank you, Mr.

20:22 - Chairman.

20:22 - Thank you, Secretary, for being here today.

20:25 - I wanted to bring to your attention a local issue that we are having,

20:30 - in in Beaver County, the, the IU and Beaver

20:33 - County runs a school, a special needs school, New horizon

20:38 - and some time ago at that school, they found black mold.

20:42 - And, of course, they could no longer house the, children there.

20:46 - So they moved and were happy that they found a place to go.

20:50 - But that place is certainly not suitable long term.

20:54 - So the school districts, which are sending students to New Horizons, came together,

21:00 - and decided to, pay or float

21:03 - a bond rather for roughly $14 million, to fix this problem

21:09 - within New Horizons and for the school districts in Beaver County.

21:13 - This is a serious investment, and they are looking for assistance,

21:18 - any way that they can get it to to make this as, least painful as possible,

21:24 - our, our chairman of the county commissioners, Dan Camp,

21:28 - led a charge to, donate $1 million for the the new school.

21:32 - And we're very pleased about his leadership in that effort.

21:36 - The state House delegation, along with the good senator Elder Vogel,

21:41 - came together, and we're looking to provide a legislative grant.

21:45 - Hopefully, we can provide some more resources as well.

21:48 - And I wanted to ask you today, is there any opportunity

21:52 - from the administration to provide some funding for this project?

21:56 - I mean, these services that new Horizon provides absolutely critical, to

22:01 - the needs to the most vulnerable students that we have, in Beaver County.

22:05 - And they do a great job of providing those services.

22:08 - But we need the funds in Beaver County.

22:10 - And I was wondering if, if there's anything

22:11 - that the administration could do to help provide, some funding for some relief.

22:17 - So I am aware of,

22:20 - New Horizon School and,

22:23 - the great services that they provide in,

22:27 - not just Beaver County, but in the surrounding counties as well.

22:31 - I know there are, several dozen,

22:34 - school districts that actually send to New Horizon.

22:38 - I think,

22:40 - the school districts, for the joint school

22:43 - floating a $14 million bond demonstrates what they think

22:48 - about that particular school and the benefit that it offers

22:52 - to our most vulnerable students, as you mentioned,

22:56 - as far as,

22:59 - money, that or funds

23:01 - that PD specifically controls at this time, PD

23:05 - doesn't have any specific, funds set aside for facilities.

23:11 - The funding that we had for facilities was,

23:15 - in subsequent after 2024 was subsequently provided to DCF.

23:20 - It's my understanding that DCF is working with that administration to determine,

23:28 - if the funds

23:29 - are able to be used, for a joint school,

23:33 - because it would be essentially, it could be perceived

23:36 - as the school districts requesting it and not the intermediate

23:40 - unit itself, if that nuance is permitted.

23:44 - And I'm not, a lawyer and I'm not looking at the statutory language,

23:49 - then perhaps, they would be able to use that funding.

23:53 - But I think it goes back to a gentleman's earlier question

23:56 - about the need for funding for facilities.

23:59 - This is something that is of utmost importance to this community,

24:04 - to vulnerable populations, to multiple school districts in that area.

24:09 - And we want to be able to provide facilities, funding where it's needed.

24:12 - And Doctor Rowe,

24:13 - being an educator and being somebody that is very familiar with it,

24:17 - I would just appreciate, I'm sure you have, that you would advocate

24:20 - to the administration the importance of of this of this project.

24:24 - I do have a follow up question, because we did learn something that was,

24:30 - interesting.

24:31 - And I think it's just basically a nuance within, within the law,

24:35 - that I think we ought to address.

24:38 - And that nuance is that IU's are not eligible for facility grants.

24:43 - And the reason why, I'm not completely sure,

24:46 - but it requires an act of the House and the Senate and a new law

24:51 - to be passed in order for that to be the case that I use,

24:55 - not just in Beaver County, but around the entire Commonwealth,

24:58 - are eligible for these types of, of grants

25:01 - for new facilities or remediation.

25:04 - Would the administration be opposed

25:06 - to changing, the law, just tweaking it so that I use

25:11 - in schools like New Horizons and would be eligible for facility grants.

25:16 - So I think the administration absolutely has a desire to ensure

25:19 - that schools are safe learning environments for all students.

25:23 - And so to that end, I think is reasonable for us

25:27 - to roll your question into the greater facilities question

25:31 - and make it part of, some type of comprehensive package

25:35 - that says, here's the funding and here's the individuals that can receive it.

25:39 - Thank you, Secretary, I appreciate your efforts.

25:42 - Thank the gentleman.

25:43 - Representative Abney.

25:45 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

25:47 - Thank you, Madam Secretary Team, for being here. Appreciate it.

25:49 - I want to talk a little bit about people, pupil transportation and,

25:54 - how what the state can do to encourage

25:57 - school districts to provide yellow bus services for all of their students.

26:01 - One of the challenges that we're seeing out in the Pittsburgh region is,

26:05 - our school district is, is overtime reducing the amount of contracts

26:09 - that they have, yellow bus services, in part due to the shortage of drivers.

26:12 - But they are then replacing that with giving,

26:15 - public transportation, bus passes.

26:18 - I have the fortune of sitting on the Pittsburgh Regional Transit board.

26:21 - And one of the challenges that that we are seeing is

26:24 - certainly when there's a yellow bus service,

26:26 - the school district is responsible for the student's safety and protection.

26:30 - The moment they get on that school bus to when they get to the school.

26:33 - But now that responsibility is being pushed on to the public

26:36 - transit system to now be responsible for their safety, which is fine.

26:41 - I think the challenge becomes when you think about, well,

26:44 - at least when I think about myself at 14, 15, 16, 17 years old and a group

26:48 - of other kids standing at a bus stop,

26:50 - we didn't necessarily make the greatest decisions.

26:52 - And, one of the things that the bus drivers, the Port

26:55 - Authority bus drivers are taught is if they if you are pulling up to a stop

26:59 - and there's a rowdy crowd, whether it is school students or it's employees

27:03 - at target standing outside of target, close the doors, keep driving.

27:07 - Which means that school students are some of them are missing

27:10 - the bus to get to school on time.

27:13 - And on top of that,

27:14 - regular patrons who are trying to go to work in the morning.

27:17 - Now they're waiting.

27:18 - They're in a bus stop with a bunch of school students.

27:20 - The bus driver pulls up and keeps going.

27:22 - Now they're late to work as well.

27:24 - So there is just a major issue around

27:27 - transit transportation of students to and from school.

27:31 - Is there anything that we can do to try to address that?

27:36 - I think this issue,

27:37 - I mean, you you start at a place in your,

27:41 - in your comments with,

27:46 - Pittsburgh Public in particular,

27:47 - in your example, scaling back the yellow bus service.

27:52 - And we have to ask ourselves, what would cause them to do that?

27:56 - And the simple answer is the,

27:59 - astronomical, and rising capital costs,

28:04 - that it takes to operate, transportation services.

28:09 - And when school districts are constantly looking

28:13 - to be more effective with the inefficient, I should have said, efficient

28:17 - with the money that they have,

28:20 - what they're doing is looking to those,

28:23 - to those other contracts and saying, is there, a better way

28:28 - I can do that, or in this case, a more efficient way to do that.

28:31 - And so it may be more efficient from a monetary standpoint

28:34 - for them to move towards this type of transportation.

28:37 - But it doesn't,

28:39 - it doesn't mitigate the

28:41 - issues that we would have with just kids being kids.

28:45 - You bring up the issue of 17 year olds.

28:47 - I would think about six year olds or or eight year olds.

28:50 - I'm not sure how low, the age goes in Pittsburgh public.

28:55 - So I'm not opining on that just in general.

28:57 - Having very young kids be, on public transportation

29:01 - would be concerning in my mind.

29:04 - That said, it's something that we could remedy, perhaps

29:08 - at least in part by ensuring that we're increasing the transportation subsidy.

29:13 - That might be a conversation for us to have related to transportation.

29:18 - Knowing that,

29:20 - the people transportation subsidy that we provide currently

29:23 - is only about 40% of the total costs that they have.

29:29 - Okay.

29:29 - I want to switch gears a little bit of talk, broadly about workforce development.

29:34 - We talked about this topic with,

29:36 - Secretary of OECD, obviously labor and industry as well.

29:39 - But I want to talk to from the PDS perspective when it comes to CTE, career

29:44 - and technical education and preparing folks for the workforce.

29:47 - I know,

29:49 - over the years there's been backlogs and students who want to be participatory

29:52 - in that program and not being able to get in and being on waitlist.

29:56 - But I believe the last time that you were here

29:57 - last year, you talked about trying to think of some creative and innovative

30:01 - ways to to bring down that weight, that waitlist, and using schools

30:05 - or school districts as actual locations to run this some of these CTE programs.

30:09 - Can you talk a little bit about

30:11 - were you able to encourage schools to to do that, and what is the current

30:14 - backlog look like for students trying to get, into the program?

30:19 - So our 30s, I apologize.

30:21 - That's fantastic that you actually recall something that I talked about last year,

30:26 - and we actually have made some progress in that area.

30:29 - We have a couple of CTCs that are actually

30:32 - offering programs in school districts now.

30:35 - It is a CTC program.

30:38 - It is their teacher, it is their program, and they are offering it

30:42 - in a, let's say, a satellite location of the school district.

30:46 - Two that come to mind would be York County School

30:49 - of Technology, and another one would be Central Westmoreland.

30:52 - One is related to a communications and marketing program, and the other one

30:56 - is related to general education for those seeking to be teachers.

31:01 - So we're actually seeing that those two things, because it's dealing

31:04 - with space issues, are absolutely going to help to reduce the waitlist

31:09 - by increasing the space available to CTCs for for current programs.

31:13 - Awesome. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it.

31:15 - Thank you gentlemen. Representative Meiko, thank you, Mr.

31:18 - Chairman and Madam Secretary.

31:20 - Good afternoon.

31:23 - So I have

31:24 - a couple questions around the adequacy gap funding.

31:28 - And, so I was hoping you'd be able to help me out on this.

31:33 - So my understanding back in, what was it?

31:36 - February 7th, 2023, that the basic

31:41 - Ed Funding Commission, they recommended it.

31:45 - Well, this year they're recommending a 565

31:48 - million in the Ready to Learn Block grant.

31:51 - Is that what's going to the adequacy funding formula?

31:56 - Is that what's being used?

31:59 - Is that the vehicle to address the adequacy funding?

32:02 - Do you want me to address how it's being used?

32:05 - Well, I guess my question is I'm trying to get my head wrapped around

32:08 - this is the adequacy formula being used through the Ready to Learn Block grant?

32:14 - Is that how that money's being allocated to fill the gap?

32:19 - Certainly.

32:19 - So there are certain for this year, there are certain, school districts

32:23 - that have been historically, and unconstitutionally funded.

32:29 - Those school districts, have a gap of approximately

32:33 - $4.8 billion, I think is the total amount.

32:37 - And each year, there is money

32:40 - set aside specifically for adequacy for those specific school districts

32:46 - so that we can fill the gap.

32:48 - So then. Okay. Yeah.

32:50 - So doing my math public school math to the,

32:56 - 565, if that is allocated

32:58 - this year, then we have the 1.6 billion

33:01 - over the last three years.

33:04 - So you're saying that that is not going to close the gap

33:08 - of the 4.8 billion?

33:09 - Oh, no, no, it will not yet close the gap.

33:13 - You are you are meaning close it entirely

33:17 - where the entire amount that was determined that has been,

33:22 - eradicated.

33:23 - And those negative effects have been ameliorated.

33:26 - No, that has not yet occurred.

33:28 - So then, how do you see the department moving forward?

33:32 - How much and how many more years?

33:34 - And what's the plan moving forward to fill that gap,

33:38 - into the future?

33:41 - Well, we would continue to have these incremental, amounts,

33:45 - provided until the total amount that was determined, which again,

33:50 - I believe is I'm going to keep saying 4.8 into one of my team members corrects me,

33:55 - until that amount, has been, fulfilled.

33:59 - Okay.

34:05 - So then okay, so then, yeah,

34:07 - we're going to need to keep continually funding this to close that gap.

34:13 - It's not closing the gap yet,

34:15 - but we got a couple more years that we need to build this out.

34:20 - And I'm just looking through my notes

34:22 - and 20, 30, 31, we're looking.

34:26 - We need to keep increasing.

34:29 - Is that is.

34:30 - Am I reading that 2020, 2030, 2031 will be when we should be closing that gap?

34:36 - Is that when the projection is?

34:39 - I'm not sure what the projection is.

34:41 - I think initially it was conceived to be something like 9 or 10 years.

34:46 - From, from the start.

34:47 - I don't know that it needs to necessarily be be that long.

34:51 - I'm looking at it as a total sum of money

34:53 - that is owed to gotcha that is owed to these schools.

34:57 - I think it's also we need to think about what, we've taken away from these,

35:03 - generations of students by not funding, their schools appropriately.

35:08 - They haven't been able to have the right amount of teachers.

35:10 - Perhaps their transportation hasn't been what it needed to be.

35:14 - Perhaps they haven't been able

35:15 - to send as many students to CTC as they as they would like.

35:19 - So they haven't had the opportunity to, get the industry credentials.

35:22 - I mean, this is a multifaceted issue.

35:26 - So I hesitate to even.

35:28 - What?

35:28 - Yeah, an end date on it, but, from just that,

35:33 - a pure gap filling perspective, I think.

35:36 - Yeah.

35:37 - I'm not trying to get you on a gotcha.

35:38 - I'm just as like from the monetary side.

35:41 - I'm trying to figure out how to bridge this gap.

35:45 - Especially with limited funds.

35:47 - We all know money doesn't grow on trees, and we're looking at

35:51 - depleting some of the rainy day fund this year and into next year as well.

35:55 - So we're going to have to have a real conversation as to

35:59 - how do we continually support this funding in the future.

36:02 - And then I see my time is short, and I just had one last plug

36:06 - for dual enrollment.

36:07 - I saw it was level funded.

36:09 - As the chairman of the Community College caucus, huge fan of dual enrollment.

36:14 - As the his excellent.

36:15 - So he says, hear me on this.

36:18 - We're moving at the speed of business.

36:21 - We need the community colleges to fill

36:23 - that workforce development. And,

36:26 - I think we need to bump that up or at least advocate for more.

36:30 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

36:31 - Thank the gentleman. Representative Kincaid.

36:33 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

36:35 - Not to retread what, Representative Webster talked about with libraries.

36:39 - But I just wanted to highlight that if we had kept pace

36:42 - with funding our libraries, that line item should be $132.6 million.

36:48 - And, especially as people are more reliant on public libraries now than ever.

36:54 - I think that we should reconsider flat funding them for this year.

36:58 - But I want to talk about, cyber charters.

37:02 - So last year, the auditor general released a performance audit of five cyber

37:06 - charter schools, which found that the cyber

37:08 - charter school tuition rate formula was not aligned

37:11 - with the actual cost of providing an online education,

37:15 - and the overpayment of tuition paid to cyber schools

37:19 - versus their actual cost, allowed the cyber charter schools

37:23 - to increase their fund balance reserves by 144%

37:27 - over three years, according to that report.

37:31 - The Auditor General also highlighted that Commonwealth Charter academies

37:34 - spending of $196 million to purchase

37:39 - or renovate 21 buildings during the audit period for purposes unknown.

37:45 - So I think it's clear that,

37:47 - cyber charter school funding reforms were needed to protect taxpayers.

37:52 - And I understand that the governor's proposing additional reforms

37:55 - that build on those changes.

37:57 - So I'm wondering if you could provide an overview of the, changes

38:01 - that we enacted in November and discuss

38:04 - the additional changes the governor is proposing with this budget?

38:08 - Yeah, I think I can do that.

38:11 - The, changes that just occurred,

38:15 - with the passing of the last budget in November,

38:20 - change,

38:22 - some of the deductions that school districts are allowed to make

38:26 - when they're considering what the tuition rate is.

38:30 - Those

38:32 - areas are,

38:35 - facilities and student

38:37 - activities, and also tax collection.

38:41 - So for the current the current year,

38:45 - they're allowed to take 60% of those areas and then,

38:52 - recalculate their tuition rate.

38:55 - There's also a change related

38:57 - to special education, tuition

39:01 - in the proposed budget, that 60% deduction is going to 80%,

39:08 - as well as adding a multiplier

39:10 - that was previously only for,

39:15 - second class,

39:16 - schools of the second class in particular counties.

39:19 - And it's looking to extrapolate that across the,

39:23 - across the Commonwealth.

39:24 - So between all of the, changes to,

39:29 - the proposed changes and for the past two years, that have been implemented,

39:33 - we're hoping to see about $250 million worth of savings

39:37 - go from, things that would have gone to,

39:40 - cyber schools and will instead remain with school districts.

39:44 - Thank you.

39:46 - From your perspective, are there other cyber charter

39:48 - reforms that we should be looking at?

39:52 - Like fund balance limits or capital spending guardrails?

39:57 - I think we have taken,

40:00 - a great, step forward

40:03 - in leveling the proverbial playing field between to two types

40:08 - of public school entities, over the past several years.

40:12 - And certainly these savings, would be helpful.

40:15 - I think it would be, beneficial for us to actually,

40:20 - have some listening sessions with school districts

40:23 - and find out specifically from them what types of issues they're still having.

40:28 - I think that's how the the truancy issue came into play,

40:33 - which helps both school districts in cyber schools.

40:36 - Certainly, it's not fair to cyber schools to be, sending them

40:40 - students that have truancy issues because it's going to persist with them.

40:44 - So ensuring that that that the school districts have the opportunity

40:47 - to deal with that first, I think, makes a lot of sense.

40:50 - That's part of the most recent, changes that went into effect as of November.

40:56 - So when you listen to school districts,

41:00 - you might hear, frustrations related to the,

41:04 - the percentage of students who are actually taking the exams.

41:08 - As an example, we have one cyber school,

41:12 - that only 23% of their students

41:15 - have actually taken the PSA and Keystone

41:18 - Exams, 23% is lowering,

41:21 - our rate across the state and,

41:24 - causing us problems with the United States Department of Education.

41:28 - So if, for example, we could find a way to incentivize,

41:34 - cyber schools to ensure

41:36 - that their school districts were, I'm sorry, to ensure that their students

41:40 - were actually taking the exam, I think that would be beneficial.

41:45 - And perhaps it could be an incentive.

41:47 - As simple as saying you can return the tuition that you received

41:51 - if the student doesn't take the exam.

41:54 - Thank you.

41:55 - As someone who represents Pittsburgh Public Schools, the application

41:59 - of the excess spending factor is a huge help.

42:02 - But I don't see any reason why it should not apply to every other qualifying school

42:06 - district, including school districts that I represent, like Northgate,

42:10 - which would have saved an additional $100,000 this year.

42:13 - So, I think that certainly we have some more work to do.

42:17 - And, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

42:19 - Thank the gentlelady, Representative Brown.

42:22 - Thank you. Chairman.

42:23 - So I'd like to continue to the discussion that you were

42:26 - having with the good gentleman from North Hampton.

42:30 - He was asking about the adequacy of funding.

42:32 - Okay.

42:33 - So beginning on page 15 through 12 of the governor's

42:37 - executive budget, PDS appropriations are listed

42:40 - with future planning years 2027

42:44 - through 28 to 2033, 31.

42:49 - And in those years, the Ready to Learn Block Grant is held level

42:54 - at 1.925 billion, requested for 2026 through 27.

43:00 - Why are the increases not reflected in the planning years of the governor's budget?

43:05 - Because you you had mentioned how important it was

43:08 - that you receive that funding.

43:11 - Yeah.

43:11 - I don't think that, it not being reflected there is, indicative

43:16 - that it's not important, rather that it is not something

43:19 - that is statutorily mandated and that only those mandatory,

43:30 - mandatory dollars are carried forward in out years.

43:33 - I think that's what you would find if you looked at which ones,

43:37 - have funding associated with them and which ones don't.

43:40 - That would be the difference between them.

43:42 - It's a negotiation between the administration and the General Assembly.

43:46 - Yeah, I understand that they were specifically

43:48 - referring to the governor's budget.

43:51 - So the numbers should be planned.

43:52 - You would think, well, if I understood you correctly,

43:56 - you're talking about not the current year, but out years.

44:00 - Correct.

44:00 - So not the one that we're currently negotiating, but future ones.

44:05 - I think it's a challenge to,

44:08 - or perhaps I should say it would be presumptuous, to put the numbers out

44:13 - when it isn't something that is that is mandatory each year.

44:17 - It is something that is negotiated between the General Assembly and

44:20 - the administration.

44:23 - Okay.

44:23 - Let's let's talk then about, at last year's hearing, we discussed

44:28 - school district expenditures as they relate to performance.

44:33 - And you had setting your remarks that you didn't really think that,

44:37 - funding necessarily

44:39 - equated to performance one on one.

44:44 - But you did say that you thought underfunding a school district

44:48 - equated to underperformance.

44:51 - So given the hundreds of millions of additional dollars

44:54 - we're spending on adequacy funding, what specific academic performance

44:59 - targets must schools meet to continue receiving these supplements?

45:04 - Under the Ready to Learn Block grant?

45:09 - Again, thank you for bringing up something that I said before.

45:12 - I, I appreciate that, that those words last year carried some meaning.

45:17 - Certainly any time we are not properly

45:22 - funding schools, that would mean that they don't have enough teachers.

45:25 - They don't have the right curriculum.

45:28 - They they don't have the ability to provide opportunities for students.

45:32 - And so naturally, then, we would see the,

45:37 - scores, go down if we look at it purely in a

45:42 - and I think that's what I was referring to then was, just test scores.

45:47 - So are we using those test scores then expecting an improvement,

45:51 - expecting additional graduation rates,

45:54 - expecting PSA scores to go up.

45:58 - Like the way you're framing it.

46:00 - You're framing it outside of just the test scores you brought up graduation rates.

46:05 - This is the third consecutive year that we've seen graduation rates go up.

46:10 - We have two years of math increases.

46:12 - We've seen our Ela or I'm sorry, our English language attainment,

46:18 - learners have the highest increases that they've had since we began.

46:22 - Actually looking at it.

46:23 - So we are actually seeing that the funding that's going in to fill

46:27 - the gaps that we've identified are absolutely making a difference.

46:32 - So these are specific to the schools that are getting the the funding,

46:36 - the block grants.

46:37 - Well, I think the block grants would be part of it.

46:39 - But certainly the other funding that the governor

46:43 - and the General Assembly have agreed on over the years for,

46:47 - for school districts has absolutely made a difference.

46:51 - So this year's request for

46:53 - $50 million, additional and basic education funding,

46:57 - that is absolutely going to play a role in how many counselors there are,

47:01 - how many, mental health counselors are potentially available.

47:06 - Do we have gaps in, teacher,

47:10 - in, in openings for, for schools?

47:12 - Yeah, I apologize, I know we're running out of time,

47:15 - but will there be any penalties for schools that do not meet the,

47:19 - graduation rates or their their scores do not go up?

47:24 - I tend not to think about, this in terms of penalties,

47:27 - but rather when we identify schools that aren't meeting the criteria

47:30 - that we've set forth, then we're going to need to provide additional support.

47:34 - And support in that case, doesn't necessarily mean money.

47:38 - It can mean that the Department of Education, having identified

47:41 - those deficits, is going to go in and, and, work

47:45 - on curriculum issues or work on coaching issues within the school.

47:50 - That's good to hear.

47:50 - Thank you.

47:52 - Thank the gentlelady, Representative Gallagher.

47:55 - Thank thank you, Mr.

47:56 - Chair.

47:57 - And thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here today.

47:59 - First, I'd like to, do a shout out to Father George High School

48:02 - who won the Catholic League championship again this year.

48:05 - Chairman, do you have a response for that one this year?

48:08 - I do have a response that ordered reads girls basketball

48:11 - team won the Public League championship for the fourth time.

48:15 - Congratulations to both schools. Congratulations.

48:17 - We did lose the amateur,

48:18 - but I just wanted to make sure we were clear about that this year.

48:22 - Madam Secretary, I'm a big fan of every student

48:25 - being able to follow their dreams, whether it be workforce, whether it be,

48:29 - apprenticeship programs or even if it's following up with,

48:33 - following, like in high school, filing for college credits.

48:36 - So my question is, how does the department ensure that low income students

48:40 - taking college level credit courses have the resources

48:43 - to actually take the exams at the end of these courses?

48:46 - I think that is done right now, by the way,

48:49 - that we're structuring our dual credit, opportunities.

48:53 - I am so pleased to share that we have,

48:56 - over half, 56%,

48:59 - of our students taking courses of rigor.

49:02 - That's your IP, your,

49:06 - I'm sorry, your AP and your IB.

49:09 - I got my acronyms mixed up, courses.

49:12 - So we're actually seeing, a lot of students taking those,

49:17 - the funding that we're receiving through dual credit, we're working on

49:21 - with our higher education partners, including community colleges,

49:25 - and trying to find ways to make it absolutely free

49:28 - for students to do to take the courses.

49:31 - We run into some issues related to transportation.

49:34 - Again, transportation keeps coming up related to transportation

49:38 - of students to the higher education facility.

49:41 - And we're working through those things.

49:43 - Sometimes there is additional fees,

49:46 - that we want to make sure

49:47 - that we're able to, to, pay those fees as well.

49:53 - But certainly we're moving toward that end

49:56 - where the where the, dual credit options

50:01 - that are available are of no, no charge to the students taking them.

50:05 - Now, I just said and again,

50:06 - I'm glad to hear that because it's very important that we help,

50:08 - some of these, lower income students make sure that they can achieve

50:11 - their dreams and go to college and, and have that opportunity to,

50:15 - take these classes prior to getting into college.

50:17 - So thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Thank you. Chair.

50:20 - We thank the gentleman

50:22 - representative all summer.

50:25 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

50:27 - Madam Secretary, it's great to see you again.

50:30 - And team,

50:32 - thank you for being here today.

50:35 - Just a shameless plug for my district.

50:39 - Back in the 139th, the,

50:43 - an update on the Wayne Pike CTC.

50:47 - Good update there.

50:48 - They received some, some good federal funding and,

50:52 - a good kickstart to that project. So,

50:56 - yeah, it's, good news there.

50:58 - On to my question, Madam Secretary.

51:01 - We've now added, excuse me, over 1 billion to the Ready

51:05 - to Learn block grants to fund adequacy

51:10 - and tax equity supplements.

51:13 - Each has its own list of acceptable

51:16 - uses, with adequacy supplement focused on quality,

51:21 - academic support and programs to help students.

51:25 - And the tax equity supplement focused on

51:29 - reducing the burden on district taxpayers.

51:35 - Now that we have more than a year of implementation,

51:39 - do you have a sense of what are the most common uses

51:43 - for these grants based on school district applications and reporting?

51:51 - We do,

51:52 - we find that these, adequacy

51:55 - dollars are being used for,

51:59 - academic performance

52:01 - for full day kindergarten.

52:04 - As an example, schools that want to move from a half day

52:08 - kindergarten to a full day kindergarten, they have a space issue

52:12 - and a teacher staff issue where they're going to need double

52:15 - the space and likely double the teachers, and that is quite an expenditure.

52:19 - So seeing this, these funds used, to reduce classroom size and promote

52:25 - full day kindergarten is something we see with a great deal of frequency,

52:29 - math and literacy programs, both during school

52:33 - as well as before and after school programs.

52:36 - We see schools are using these funds for their career and tech ed,

52:41 - programs, whether they're offering the programs

52:44 - in the schools themselves or whether they're paying to send a student to a CTC.

52:49 - And hopefully there's one soon in your area,

52:53 - classroom size reduction.

52:54 - And I think also career readiness is another, area

52:58 - where our schools are using the funding.

53:01 - How does the Ready to Learn block grant formula

53:05 - ensure, fairness?

53:09 - When,

53:11 - when looking at density in the rural districts that face higher

53:16 - per pupil, per pupil operating costs,

53:20 - but receive smaller proportional,

53:24 - ready to learn increases?

53:28 - I can appreciate the concern

53:30 - that rural schools may be receiving, less.

53:34 - I think what we tend to look at is,

53:39 - we tend to look at this through an equity lens and say,

53:43 - what does each school need?

53:46 - And are we providing the resources according to those needs?

53:50 - When we're providing funding to a rural school, that doesn't necessarily mean

53:55 - that we're providing all of the funding that that they could want.

54:00 - It certainly doesn't

54:01 - negate their lived experience.

54:04 - Of, of needing, additional funding.

54:10 - We do have some rural school districts

54:13 - who are benefiting from the adequacy funds,

54:17 - using it to purchase new structured literacy.

54:23 - Curriculum math resources,

54:27 - promoting going to CTCs.

54:29 - Right now, I'm thinking about a school district in Clearfield County.

54:33 - That is particularly rural, and they are sending over

54:36 - 50% of their 11th and 12th graders to a CTC,

54:41 - using the adequacy funds to help those students realize their dreams

54:46 - and to earn industry credentials is certainly a reasonable use of the funds.

54:52 - Okay.

54:53 - Well, I appreciate your time this afternoon.

54:55 - And again, I want to thank you for all your support.

54:58 - The Wayne Pike, CTC.

55:02 - Thank you. Thank you,

55:05 - thank the gentleman, Representative Fleming.

55:10 - Good afternoon, Secretary and the rest of the PD team.

55:15 - Harkening back to

55:15 - last year, I was really thrilled to hear you, provide unequivocal support

55:21 - for structured literacy, which I really appreciate.

55:26 - And so that's where I'm going to start,

55:29 - with the work of this, General Assembly in a bipartisan way,

55:33 - we were able to get $10 million in the most recently passed budget.

55:38 - I'd like to thank my, colleague,

55:41 - Representative Jason or Te Tai for, We're walking this road together.

55:45 - He he started it, since he's, since he's got more,

55:50 - experience in this building than I do as a legislator.

55:53 - But, we're walking this path together to try and get structure literacy deployed

55:57 - across the commonwealth.

55:58 - So, can you identify what what you're earmarking

56:01 - that $10 million for and how that will be,

56:05 - spent throughout the Commonwealth to to assist school districts, enhance

56:09 - their, literacy rates and their reading, the reading for their students.

56:14 - First, let me

56:15 - say thank you for being a champion of structured literacy.

56:19 - If we can set aside, the idea of,

56:23 - school safety being the number one concern of any school,

56:26 - if we can set that aside, then the number one concern

56:29 - of all schools should be, literacy should be that

56:33 - all of the students can read so that they can unlock their futures.

56:37 - The department is engaged in a variety of different things,

56:42 - to, ensure that structured literacy, as it,

56:48 - it appears now in the statutes, is carried out.

56:52 - I think I can turn to, Deputy Secretary

56:55 - Lina to give you an update on what some of those things are.

56:59 - We're very excited to get the word out about structured literacy

57:02 - and to really make sure that it's, throughout all the schools.

57:06 - So the first thing we did as soon as the implementation of act 47 is

57:11 - we had it, we sent out a guide to all the schools across the Commonwealth

57:17 - outlining everything in that is,

57:20 - you know, new tag 47, but also calling out structural literacy.

57:24 - And then we wanted to continue that communication so that there is

57:28 - ongoing because some of the

57:31 - initiatives are not years down, but we want them planning

57:33 - and we want them to have the opportunity

57:35 - to start everything now, not waiting till 27, 28 school year.

57:39 - So we we actually created a Dear Colleague letters.

57:42 - Will we call it the chief school administrators really outlining everything

57:46 - that structure literacy should include and what is expected.

57:52 - And then we also and we want to thank you for the survey

57:55 - because we can't survey the field without that legislative move.

58:00 - Because it's voluntary otherwise.

58:02 - So now for the first time, as of March 31st, we're going to have a pulse

58:08 - on what is actually happening across the Commonwealth

58:11 - and then using that information, because we have made it

58:14 - very clear that this survey is not compliance.

58:17 - It's really about where are you in your journey and how can we help you.

58:22 - So based on this, feedback is then going to allow us to send the resources.

58:27 - So we're going to be partnering with the intermediate unit.

58:31 - And Peyton and anyone else like we can,

58:35 - you know, partner with and getting the resources to the right people.

58:38 - So do you need more professional development then here we come.

58:41 - We're going to help you with that.

58:43 - What are the do you need help selecting the right materials?

58:45 - Do you have the materials

58:47 - that actually meet the requirements of structured literacy? Yes.

58:50 - And that's what we're going to be doing.

58:51 - Yeah. This survey is key.

58:53 - Sorry I'm sorry, Deputy Secretary.

58:55 - But that's critically important to marry.

58:57 - You know, proper curriculum, proper training.

58:59 - I mean, I think one of the issues we ran into for such a long time was not at

59:05 - not training

59:06 - teachers adequately in how to teach structured literacy.

59:09 - So thank you so much.

59:10 - I also want to elevate something that, colleague put on my radar.

59:15 - And it's happening in one of the school districts.

59:17 - It's it's not in mine, fortunately.

59:19 - And I can't imagine, the the disruption it would cause if it were happening.

59:23 - I just wanted to make you aware, or see if you are aware of, the potential of,

59:29 - district wide messaging systems through telephonic communication.

59:34 - Some of those are being, disrupted and,

59:37 - being categorized as spam, and they're not making it to parents and guardians.

59:41 - Is that, I see on your face?

59:43 - Maybe you've heard about this, ro or I.

59:45 - I actually hadn't thought about it, but it might me.

59:48 - It makes sense.

59:49 - You know, we're used to things bouncing in our email.

59:52 - It would make sense that sooner or later

59:53 - it would happen on our cell phones as well.

59:55 - Yeah.

59:55 - I mean, it's something I just wanted to elevate it for the department.

59:58 - 363 And if there's anything you can do because I,

01:00 - 02.932 I mean, I know for, for my home district community

01:00 - 05.501 that communication is critical, whether it's, you know,

01:00 - 07.604 announcing a

01:00 - 11.441 weather delay or in-service days or any other you know,

01:00 - 15.244 emergency messages that need to go out to, to to students and their families.

01:00 - 17.447 I just wanted to make sure you're aware of that.

01:00 - 19.415 So thank you so much for your work.

01:00 - 22.085 I really appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.

01:00 - 24.554 Thank the gentleman, Representative Flood.

01:00 - 25.188 Thank you, chairman.

01:00 - 27.991 Thank you, Secretary and Staff, for being here today.

01:00 - 30.393 In recent months there have been meetings,

01:00 - 33.963 media reports about what appears to be fraud

01:00 - 39.068 related to child care and early childhood education funding.

01:00 - 42.071 In other states, the most recent in Minnesota.

01:00 - 45.208 And these are egregious allegations.

01:00 - 51.180 The I know the Office of Child Development in early learning

01:00 - 55.251 or act out manages the state and federal funding in this area for the Commonwealth.

01:00 - 59.789 What sort of oversight and safeguards are in place

01:00 - 04.027 here in Pennsylvania to prevent this type of fraud?

01:01 - 07.630 And also, how often do you do inspections?

01:01 - 09.465 Yeah,

01:01 - 13.169 I am happy to start this answer, but I'm also very pleased

01:01 - 16.906 that I have the deputy secretary, for octal here,

01:01 - 19.909 who can, who can give you,

01:01 - 22.945 any additional information that you might want on the topic.

01:01 - 25.848 So first, when I think about,

01:01 - 28.051 you brought up Minnesota,

01:01 - 31.054 and inasmuch as we're talking about,

01:01 - 34.257 things that are within PDS realm and not DHS, right.

01:01 - 37.260 So we're talking about students that are at least

01:01 - 40.263 three years old,

01:01 - 43.032 in Minnesota, they had just started

01:01 - 46.035 their, equivalent of octal.

01:01 - 48.871 Their equivalent of octal is only three years old.

01:01 - 53.376 Where here in Pennsylvania, octal, is about 18 years old.

01:01 - 58.414 So we have robust processes in place to ensure that fraud, waste

01:01 - 03.386 and abuse are either non-existent or limited and identified early.

01:02 - 06.389 We have,

01:02 - 11.928 the requirement that

01:02 - 15.865 schools our, our, coming from

01:02 - 19.202 I mean, let me rephrase that, that, say pre-K

01:02 - 23.439 providers come from school districts, licensed nurseries, headstart

01:02 - 27.510 grantees and DHS licensed three and four star facilities.

01:02 - 30.780 So we already have a built in quality mechanism.

01:02 - 34.050 We also have an inventory that is done.

01:02 - 36.919 For these centers

01:02 - 40.790 to ensure that they are meeting our particular standards.

01:02 - 43.793 They have to receive at least 86%.

01:02 - 47.196 And our pre-K specialists are the ones

01:02 - 50.399 who are going in and making sure that things are monitored annually.

01:02 - 54.370 So while those things are happening here, what you found is that they weren't

01:02 - 55.905 happening in Minnesota.

01:02 - 58.274 And I think that's a product of their growing pains.

01:02 - 01.677 It is a very new system. There.

01:03 - 05.014 And they're they're going through some of those those issues.

01:03 - 07.950 If you're interested in additional depth to that answer,

01:03 - 09.418 I have the deputy secretary here.

01:03 - 11.154 Good.

01:03 - 11.754 Good afternoon.

01:03 - 14.157 I was going to say good morning. So my apologies.

01:03 - 15.691 Good afternoon.

01:03 - 19.295 It's important to know, before I get started and answer your questions,

01:03 - 22.732 that the childcare licensing actually falls under DHS.

01:03 - 24.901 Be more than happy to talk more about that.

01:03 - 28.104 I believe it's tomorrow with the Department of Human Services.

01:03 - 30.673 However, we do do yearly inspections.

01:03 - 34.610 So the Department or the Bureau of Certification Services

01:03 - 37.847 or licensing, with the

01:03 - 42.051 the Department of Human Services actually falls, under the jurisdiction of act.

01:03 - 46.222 And we do do yearly inspections for all of our licensed childcare facilities.

01:03 - 49.525 Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.

01:03 - 54.096 I just real quick want to switch over to, early intervention.

01:03 - 57.600 The governor's budget proposes

01:03 - 01.437 over $504 million in early intervention,

01:04 - 04.440 an increase of over $51 million,

01:04 - 07.410 or an 11% over this year.

01:04 - 10.279 I know in recent years, early intervention programs,

01:04 - 14.150 which are run by the intermediate units, have experienced

01:04 - 17.420 growing numbers of children who are receiving multiple services,

01:04 - 22.258 which I know has driven the increase in this line item.

01:04 - 26.262 So is is do you think that is what this increase is?

01:04 - 26.929 I mean, I'm saying

01:04 - 29.999 I know, but I want to hear from you is that was driving this increase.

01:04 - 33.302 And do you expect these pressures to continue in the future?

01:04 - 37.240 I think there's a couple of things that are driving it.

01:04 - 41.611 I think first is we're seeing year over year increases right now.

01:04 - 46.616 There's 71,000 students that are receiving early intervention services.

01:04 - 49.852 And we expect, 2000

01:04 - 54.690 to 2500 students additional each, each year.

01:04 - 56.359 I think

01:04 - 59.762 another issue that we have related to the budgeting for this

01:04 - 02.732 and the reason why we've needed supplemental budgets in the past

01:05 - 07.370 is because every student that presents themselves and is evaluated,

01:05 - 11.474 and is determined that they have a need for OT speech,

01:05 - 15.511 or the like, is required to receive those services.

01:05 - 19.282 So it's difficult to predict what, how many students,

01:05 - 22.485 will be will be coming.

01:05 - 25.254 One of the things that we have done

01:05 - 29.558 routinely there's been this, supplemental budget that's been requested,

01:05 - 33.663 after the budgeting process is done and to try and eliminate that,

01:05 - 37.600 Oakdale has,

01:05 - 39.902 revised the way the revise

01:05 - 42.872 their modeling methodology for,

01:05 - 46.142 how the costs are,

01:05 - 49.378 are determined.

01:05 - 55.051 And we're also realigning all of the providers

01:05 - 00.289 to the state's budgeting cycle, that the fiscal year

01:06 - 06.095 so that we can hopefully not have to do the supplemental budgets moving forward.

01:06 - 09.231 So, the supplemental budget

01:06 - 12.868 and the budget that we generally would ask for when you add those

01:06 - 16.305 two things together, now you're getting close to that $51 million.

01:06 - 19.141 Okay. Thank you I appreciate it.

01:06 - 22.111 Thank the gentlelady, Representative Brennan.

01:06 - 23.179 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:06 - 25.848 And thank you for being here testifying today.

01:06 - 30.353 We're, we're here in the 250th anniversary of this country, and,

01:06 - 34.023 Pennsylvania has always been sort at the center of the ideas

01:06 - 37.460 and principles, behind the core of the birth of this country.

01:06 - 41.530 But unfortunately, we're starting to see that,

01:06 - 44.700 the nationwide evaluations are showing us falling behind in our,

01:06 - 48.404 teaching of civic education in our schools.

01:06 - 51.540 The first section of the education code defines our schools role

01:06 - 53.209 informing citizens.

01:06 - 57.179 It says public education prepares students to become self-directed,

01:06 - 59.115 lifelong learners and responsible.

01:06 - 00.182 It involves citizens.

01:07 - 04.520 But, 75% of our educated are saying we're not spending enough time on civics.

01:07 - 07.990 In recent years, we passed, act 35, which,

01:07 - 10.893 try to create some more incentives.

01:07 - 14.030 But, I'm not sure if there's a full oversight or if,

01:07 - 17.333 if it's, it's creating all the incentives that that we need.

01:07 - 20.836 Representative Parker and I have been working on a bill,

01:07 - 24.740 to try and create more incentives for our schools, for our students.

01:07 - 27.743 I'm wondering, what is the department

01:07 - 30.746 doing to address, these issues?

01:07 - 35.317 And what what can we do to be better supporting our educators right now?

01:07 - 40.556 So tell me the first part of your question one more time.

01:07 - 44.393 I'm just wondering, what's the department doing to address these issues

01:07 - 47.396 and to better support our, our educators.

01:07 - 51.067 So, we work to provide,

01:07 - 53.669 technical assistance and support,

01:07 - 56.672 in each of the,

01:07 - 00.409 in each of the academic areas, and certainly history

01:08 - 03.846 and geography and civics is is one of those areas.

01:08 - 08.250 We understand that, quality civics

01:08 - 11.921 education programs really have three strong pillars.

01:08 - 16.459 We encourage, knowledge, skills and action,

01:08 - 20.096 to be part of

01:08 - 22.998 and any civics education program

01:08 - 28.504 at the end of a civics program between the seventh and 12th grade,

01:08 - 32.374 students are required to take, an end of year

01:08 - 35.744 exam that will, that they,

01:08 - 39.849 provide the results to the department every two years.

01:08 - 45.488 One of the exams that, is permitted so that we can have a gauge

01:08 - 48.557 of how well our students are doing is the actual,

01:08 - 53.729 citizenship, exam, that has a bank of approximately

01:08 - 57.133 100 questions and really are things that we all should know,

01:08 - 59.668 and be able to do.

01:08 - 03.472 We're also looking to have, schools,

01:09 - 07.376 have students aware of what their responsibilities

01:09 - 10.379 are as a citizen and as a voting member.

01:09 - 13.983 And to really understand the meaning behind We the People.

01:09 - 20.156 I mean, I feel like the civics, engagement requirements.

01:09 - 23.726 I feel like the, the citizen step citizenship test is kind of a low bar.

01:09 - 27.930 I feel like the the schools are only going to, prioritize

01:09 - 29.632 this if we're showing them that it's important.

01:09 - 31.500 I'm wondering if you think there's more that we

01:09 - 33.369 we should be transmitting to our schools

01:09 - 35.070 to tell them that this is an important priority.

01:09 - 36.572 Is there more that we can be doing?

01:09 - 39.542 Are we doing any programs for,

01:09 - 42.211 pathways to action for our kids?

01:09 - 43.913 Just trying to get the department's,

01:09 - 48.684 thought on if we have, more that we need to do and, any direction on that.

01:09 - 52.488 Well, I think we might be able to I might be able to give you

01:09 - 56.158 some information about that related to our to our toolkit.

01:09 - 00.129 Are you able to talk about the toolkit?

01:10 - 02.698 Well, one of the things, one of the resources that we like to

01:10 - 05.801 provide is on our site, our PD site,

01:10 - 09.572 and we have toolkits that really promote different areas.

01:10 - 11.140 When we have a toolkit, it means it's really

01:10 - 13.409 that we're pulling out this and saying, this is important.

01:10 - 17.012 Here's some technical assistance to really help this area.

01:10 - 18.614 So we don't have a toolkit for everything,

01:10 - 21.617 but we do have a toolkit specifically for civics.

01:10 - 25.287 And we wanted to give the resources to the teachers so that they can,

01:10 - 29.658 you know, and definitely increase the, civics knowledge of our students.

01:10 - 32.928 Well, I would just encourage the department to look at this if our

01:10 - 35.331 if our national testing is saying we're failing, if our

01:10 - 39.301 if our if our teachers are telling us we need to do more, I really do think

01:10 - 43.639 we need to, to listen to those assessments and find a way to prioritize this.

01:10 - 47.710 I mean, our schools are the, you know, number one groundwork for

01:10 - 49.245 for having a democratic culture.

01:10 - 50.579 And if we're failing there,

01:10 - 53.582 it has a lot of effects that go out in other directions.

01:10 - 55.050 So encourage us to to look at that.

01:10 - 57.152 And I, I do hope the department's aware of that. Thank you.

01:10 - 02.291 Yeah.

01:11 - 02.658 Thank you.

01:11 - 04.660 Gentlemen.

01:11 - 06.495 Representative record.

01:11 - 07.563 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:11 - 10.232 Thank you, Secretary, for joining us here today.

01:11 - 12.701 Last May, Penn State, as I'm sure you're aware,

01:11 - 15.237 made the announcement that they were going to close.

01:11 - 17.373 Seven of their Commonwealth campuses.

01:11 - 20.376 I, including one of my district, Penn State, Mont Alto. And,

01:11 - 23.812 we're going through the process of re-envisioning those.

01:11 - 28.284 I think the, the transfer is to take place, June of 2027.

01:11 - 31.053 So we're just just over a year out from that.

01:11 - 34.590 I know one of the last things that goes along with this is,

01:11 - 38.027 your signature on the order for closing these campuses.

01:11 - 41.130 Secretary, are you are you, in fact, planning to sign that order?

01:11 - 45.434 Well,

01:11 - 48.437 I think what we have to look at is,

01:11 - 51.407 what the requirements are by statute.

01:11 - 56.011 And have they actually met those particular, requirements?

01:11 - 00.215 So the first thing that Penn State needs to do

01:12 - 04.820 is actually transmit to the department a, a plan.

01:12 - 09.625 And once they transmit the plan and we review it, as a department,

01:12 - 13.062 then we need to know, are there any additional, pieces

01:12 - 18.000 of information that would be required for us to, make a fulsome, decision?

01:12 - 21.503 It's only at that point, after they've actually

01:12 - 24.540 transmitted something which they haven't, and we've determined

01:12 - 28.410 what additional information we need, which we don't know currently,

01:12 - 31.613 that I could appropriately answer whether or not we would sign it,

01:12 - 34.516 but it appears, I mean, it's Penn State's intention

01:12 - 39.488 to go through the process and all that to to present you with plans.

01:12 - 40.322 I'm assuming,

01:12 - 43.926 we haven't had, Doctor Bennett put it here yet, to really nail that down.

01:12 - 47.229 But again, you know, as, as we're, as we're back in our own communities

01:12 - 50.733 working on these plans and developing them, you know,

01:12 - 55.571 I guess ultimately to be presented to you, on behalf of Penn State.

01:12 - 59.074 I mean, I guess if if you are unsatisfied with these plans,

01:12 - 02.678 would you then not potentially sign these orders?

01:13 - 05.614 I would be looking for them to meet

01:13 - 08.617 the statutory obligations that they have.

01:13 - 12.721 I understand that they, are asserting that they have,

01:13 - 15.891 declining enrollment, demographic shifts,

01:13 - 18.961 shifts, financial constraints,

01:13 - 22.398 and all of those are part of the motivation to want to close

01:13 - 26.635 some of the campuses, I believe, you might have said that there were seven

01:13 - 29.638 in total, that they were considering, but,

01:13 - 33.142 until and unless they provide us with,

01:13 - 38.013 the information that would be required for us to make a decision,

01:13 - 39.982 I think it's difficult for me to decide

01:13 - 42.317 whether or not it's something that I would sign or not.

01:13 - 43.118 Sign.

01:13 - 46.321 Would you say, would you would you be willing to share that information

01:13 - 50.325 with us again, or in our communities where we're trying to reimagine?

01:13 - 54.830 And I'm assuming, as Penn State is, is engaging with us, that is information

01:13 - 55.731 they want to present to you

01:13 - 59.268 so that way, you know, as we're moving forward with these, do you

01:13 - 01.470 do you have anything that you'd be willing to share with us

01:14 - 04.173 that we can take back to our respective committee,

01:14 - 07.309 our committees that we're moving forward properly?

01:14 - 11.213 Or, again, if you have an intention of, you know, certain things that you're

01:14 - 14.216 looking for, that you know, you might be able to highlight with us.

01:14 - 17.619 I think, the Deputy Secretary for Higher Education

01:14 - 19.421 might be able to give you a little bit.

01:14 - 21.457 It seems to me you're wanting something more specific

01:14 - 22.624 than what I'm giving you right now.

01:14 - 25.294 So let's turn it over to the deputy secretary.

01:14 - 27.429 So, yeah, we've been really collaboratively working

01:14 - 31.733 with Penn State and the seven campuses that are proposing to close,

01:14 - 35.037 making sure that the communities are taking care of that

01:14 - 38.173 higher education is accessible and that the communities have

01:14 - 40.275 what they need, whatever that may look like.

01:14 - 44.446 I do invite the communities to engage with the State Board of Higher Education

01:14 - 45.147 to make sure

01:14 - 48.750 that they can collaboratively work with all the stakeholders in that area

01:14 - 50.552 to meet the needs of the community,

01:14 - 53.555 and therefore, that will help Penn State finalize their plans

01:14 - 56.625 of how higher education can still be delivered into those areas

01:14 - 00.596 that they may be, proposing or are proposing to close those plans.

01:15 - 02.431 But we've been working very collaboratively

01:15 - 04.533 to make sure that those needs are met.

01:15 - 07.503 I suggest you have a check, a checklist, and that they're going through to

01:15 - 11.440 new determine that they're meeting certain milestones and goals and everything

01:15 - 14.276 with the Department of Education and the Higher Education Board there.

01:15 - 14.843 There are things

01:15 - 18.046 there are things that you've been going through with each of the seven campuses.

01:15 - 20.382 Then we have regular check ins with their leaders,

01:15 - 23.752 with the seven campuses individually or just with Penn State overall,

01:15 - 25.320 with the leadership of Penn State,

01:15 - 27.890 with the leadership, but not but not the individual campuses

01:15 - 30.392 sharing the meetings and the plans of each of those campuses.

01:15 - 31.527 Yes. Okay.

01:15 - 35.430 And I guess in the Secretary's, as you were mentioning, you know, this

01:15 - 38.634 this is, a result, as Penn State's saying, of demographic

01:15 - 41.637 challenges and shifts in enrollment and that sort of stuff.

01:15 - 42.271 And I,

01:15 - 42.571 you know,

01:15 - 44.773 I think there's a little bit of some debate, at least on our end,

01:15 - 46.975 you know, in counties that might be growing,

01:15 - 47.509 you know, as to

01:15 - 50.812 whether that's true or not, but is that is that a trend that you're seeing,

01:15 - 55.551 overall in the Commonwealth that there's declining, post-secondary enrollment?

01:15 - 57.986 I think there is. And I think there's

01:15 - 01.490 a lot of different reasons why that actually might be the case.

01:16 - 04.993 That's part of what the Department of Education as a whole is looking at.

01:16 - 08.597 And certainly part of what the state Board of Higher Education,

01:16 - 12.868 has been tasked with, determining how it is.

01:16 - 17.105 We might address that declining, enrollment and the shifts in demographics.

01:16 - 19.841 Okay. Well, thank you, Secretary, I see, I see that my time is up.

01:16 - 20.075 And, you know,

01:16 - 21.410 I certainly look forward to working

01:16 - 25.447 with all of you again, as we're trying to reimagine these seven campuses.

01:16 - 29.451 And if there are anything that you would have that, you know, I can take back,

01:16 - 32.454 and I know there's other reps here, obviously, that are impacted as well

01:16 - 35.190 about what you are looking for, so that when we develop a plan

01:16 - 38.460 that it is something that, you know, we don't have any delays, right?

01:16 - 42.531 I think we we want to make sure that we are moving forward, that any sort of delay

01:16 - 45.601 that that could be encountered would, you know, have the potential

01:16 - 49.638 to disrupt the momentum and kind of squash the energy that we have back home.

01:16 - 52.941 So really, any anything that you would be willing to share with us

01:16 - 56.011 that we can take back would be extremely appreciated.

01:16 - 57.245 So thank you, Secretary.

01:16 - 57.613 Thank you.

01:16 - 58.080 Gentlemen.

01:16 - 01.383 Representative Donahue, thank you, Mr.

01:17 - 01.783 Chairman.

01:17 - 04.453 And thank you, Secretary, for being here today.

01:17 - 05.854 I've been hearing from both, school

01:17 - 09.024 districts I represent and from school districts across Pennsylvania,

01:17 - 13.061 that we're seeing growing shortages in certified school nurses

01:17 - 14.229 and school psychologists,

01:17 - 18.133 professionals who are essential to addressing student health needs,

01:17 - 21.603 mental health challenges and post-pandemic learning recovery.

01:17 - 25.674 Could you explain what steps the department is taking, to recruit

01:17 - 29.311 and retain these critical staff and outline whether you support,

01:17 - 33.215 additional state investments or pipeline programs to ensure every student

01:17 - 36.284 has adequate access to nursing and psychological services

01:17 - 39.287 in their school.

01:17 - 42.257 Sure.

01:17 - 44.393 It's taking a note there.

01:17 - 47.362 So I didn't miss the the question.

01:17 - 50.365 So the first thing that we have to do,

01:17 - 54.603 is determine as a state where are the where are the deficits

01:17 - 56.505 that we're seeing or the gaps that we're seeing

01:17 - 59.508 in the amount of individuals that are certified?

01:18 - 02.310 And you rightly mention

01:18 - 05.414 nursing as being, one of those areas.

01:18 - 07.082 Not necessarily that there aren't.

01:18 - 10.085 Well, there's certainly perhaps not enough nurses in the state as a whole.

01:18 - 14.289 But then there's an additional, test to be a school nurse.

01:18 - 18.527 And so trying to find ways to incentivize,

01:18 - 23.432 nurses to move, into school nursing is certainly something

01:18 - 27.235 that we need to do the same thing with school psychologists.

01:18 - 30.205 And we have a couple of different mechanisms for doing that.

01:18 - 34.109 One is working through the PA helps program,

01:18 - 38.480 which, provides stipends or grants, rather to

01:18 - 42.217 school nurses and school psychologists.

01:18 - 44.820 And another is through

01:18 - 46.955 PD's own efforts related

01:18 - 51.793 to, attracting people to the profession so that we can,

01:18 - 55.230 have more school psychologists

01:18 - 58.233 in, in our schools.

01:18 - 59.301 Thank you for that.

01:18 - 02.003 And I look forward to working with you on that.

01:19 - 05.240 Just one more quick question regarding mentoring, mentorship,

01:19 - 09.044 PDS study of 900 plus educators

01:19 - 11.613 found that surrounding young people with supportive

01:19 - 15.183 relationships was at the top of the list, for what is now needed,

01:19 - 19.287 to chart a path forward for learning post-pandemic.

01:19 - 20.789 How is PD incorporating

01:19 - 23.792 mentoring into their budget to help schools support their students?

01:19 - 27.729 Schools are certainly able to use,

01:19 - 30.732 the funding that they receive and basic education funding,

01:19 - 34.202 or any number of the other avenues

01:19 - 39.174 that the other funding avenues that they have for mentoring.

01:19 - 41.643 Nothing would preclude them from doing that.

01:19 - 44.613 If that's something that they want to elevate.

01:19 - 45.847 Thank you for that.

01:19 - 46.381 Thank you, Mr.

01:19 - 49.351 Chairman.

01:19 - 52.320 Thank the gentleman, Representative Marcel.

01:19 - 53.355 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:19 - 55.791 Thank you so much for being here today.

01:19 - 58.527 I know there have been a lot of questions relating to career

01:19 - 00.929 and technical education, but that is my passion area.

01:20 - 04.366 So I'm going to bring you back to that particular topic.

01:20 - 09.471 So in Bucks County we have three CTCs.

01:20 - 13.608 They all have waitlists, including the one that's in my district that I used to be

01:20 - 17.579 on the Executive Council for, which is the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology.

01:20 - 22.450 And they shared with me, recently that they have nearly

01:20 - 27.055 700 applications for what will be about 340 spots.

01:20 - 30.525 And so they it's great.

01:20 - 31.660 It's great news.

01:20 - 33.728 They're doing a wonderful job.

01:20 - 37.132 It's a wonderful school that, that I'm so proud of.

01:20 - 40.068 But the thing that that I really am disturbed by

01:20 - 43.471 is that they're all of these students that are potentially missing out

01:20 - 46.708 on the thing that they want to explore and what their dream is.

01:20 - 49.511 At that very pivotal age.

01:20 - 51.680 And so,

01:20 - 55.350 I would just share they have very strong interest in, medical

01:20 - 59.221 and health professional dental technology, electrical, cosmetology,

01:20 - 02.190 all of these areas. They just built a brand new welding lab.

01:21 - 05.360 So they have a lot of welders that are coming out as well.

01:21 - 08.897 In fact, they added a welding teacher, an electrical teacher.

01:21 - 11.533 They're considering adding another teacher this year.

01:21 - 13.501 But space is their most

01:21 - 16.771 scarce resource.

01:21 - 20.542 So they try to literally take every space and make sure

01:21 - 24.045 they can fit some type of program in it, which I appreciate.

01:21 - 28.817 But, and I'm glad that that you had shared that a lot of districts are trying

01:21 - 32.721 to mitigate by creating programs and doing things within their districts.

01:21 - 37.692 But for this existing CTC that's servicing, you know, four school

01:21 - 40.795 districts in Bucks County, like, what are their options at this point?

01:21 - 44.132 Is there anything in this budget that is going to help them right now,

01:21 - 48.703 or is there anything that that we should be working on here

01:21 - 52.040 to help support them so we can get more kids connected to the

01:21 - 55.377 the things that they want to be doing and to fulfill their dreams.

01:21 - 59.481 And the dramatic increases in, career

01:21 - 02.684 and tech funding certainly are going to assist here.

01:22 - 06.554 But like you, I am always,

01:22 - 10.225 particularly concerned about students saying

01:22 - 13.895 for example, I'd like to be an electrician or I'd like to be a welder.

01:22 - 19.000 And in met with, sorry, that programs closed.

01:22 - 22.137 How about becoming a diesel mechanic?

01:22 - 26.675 And it occurs to me every time I hear about waitlists, that we're changing

01:22 - 31.846 the trajectory of a child's entire life because there's not enough room.

01:22 - 36.184 So, when I was talking about,

01:22 - 40.055 what was happening with some different CTCs

01:22 - 43.325 earlier, I was actually talking about things like what?

01:22 - 46.861 Bucks, can Bucks County CTCs can do.

01:22 - 49.631 They can say,

01:22 - 52.033 just as an example,

01:22 - 55.503 that they wanted to have a general education

01:22 - 59.641 program for students who want to be become teachers.

01:23 - 03.812 Well, that's not really intensive in equipment

01:23 - 07.182 and could certainly fit in any school district.

01:23 - 10.852 So what I've seen CTC start to do

01:23 - 14.823 is say it's our program, our CTCs program,

01:23 - 17.993 it's our teacher, but we're going to teach it

01:23 - 22.530 in that school district because they have availability of space for us.

01:23 - 25.834 And so that's a way to say we're not going to sacrifice in rigor.

01:23 - 28.837 We're not going to sacrifice the quality of the program.

01:23 - 30.905 And that school district doesn't have to do anything

01:23 - 34.109 other than open their doors and maybe say, we're going to have one more bus a day.

01:23 - 36.378 Come, come to this location.

01:23 - 38.880 So that's one thing that I think we can do.

01:23 - 44.119 Another inventive thing that I've heard recently is related to the Nocatee exam,

01:23 - 48.156 which is the exam that's taken at the end of the of a student's program.

01:23 - 53.028 Right now, the statutory language is that they have to take that in 12th grade.

01:23 - 56.664 Well, what if they could take it in 11th grade

01:23 - 58.967 because they finish their program in 11th grade?

01:23 - 03.071 Are we now suddenly freeing up space to allow more students to come in?

01:24 - 04.939 I think the answer to that is yes.

01:24 - 07.909 And it doesn't mean that the students who finish in 11th grade

01:24 - 10.712 have to now go find something to do back at their home district.

01:24 - 11.312 It's possible

01:24 - 11.980 there's plenty

01:24 - 15.050 of things that we can do with them related to apprenticeships and the like.

01:24 - 19.087 So I'm I'm pretty excited about that.

01:24 - 21.923 Yeah. No. And I appreciate you trying to just think outside the box.

01:24 - 23.558 We've been trying to do that in both county.

01:24 - 27.262 So changing the knockout exam, is that something that can be done

01:24 - 30.565 through your department or through legislation.

01:24 - 35.570 Like how do we we would need to effectuate that through, through legislation.

01:24 - 39.574 And it could be something, allowing the department to grant a waiver

01:24 - 42.777 for a period of time so that we can evaluate whether or not

01:24 - 44.345 this is a reasonable thing to do.

01:24 - 47.582 Although even as I heard myself just say that anytime you're

01:24 - 51.052 kind of piloting, it makes it difficult to move an entire sector.

01:24 - 54.189 So they might not want to make big changes.

01:24 - 58.059 If they think that it's something that could go away within five years. But,

01:24 - 01.763 allowing the department to provide waivers to

01:25 - 05.400 that would be something that I think would be a reasonable next step

01:25 - 07.268 and something we should definitely investigate.

01:25 - 07.836 Okay. Thank you.

01:25 - 10.305 And I have a question, but can I just read it

01:25 - 13.842 and then you can respond or I can send an email afterwards.

01:25 - 16.077 But, I just had Mr.

01:25 - 18.646 Chairman, I have like 30s. Thank you.

01:25 - 22.550 So I noticed that that's twice for you.

01:25 - 25.053 So I just want to be clear for you.

01:25 - 28.022 I mean, so everybody remember I'm balanced.

01:25 - 28.790 Representative.

01:25 - 32.560 You have in balance very, very generous to me in particular.

01:25 - 34.529 So there you go.

01:25 - 36.664 So, really quick,

01:25 - 39.667 I just if you can respond after this, I'd appreciate it.

01:25 - 41.669 I'm trying to to just learn more about.

01:25 - 43.838 I saw that you had two CTE program goals.

01:25 - 49.077 One is to ensure equity inclusion in PD approved CCT programs and to expand

01:25 - 53.148 and career pathways that support multiple exit and reentry opportunities.

01:25 - 56.084 I just wanted to know what those goals meant.

01:25 - 58.953 If you could give me some examples of what that actually is, what you're

01:25 - 01.389 trying to accomplish, and how that can help us

01:26 - 03.391 with the exact conversation

01:26 - 06.394 we just had about CTE and trying to get the waitlist under control.

01:26 - 09.130 So I don't want to take any more time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:26 - 10.532 Thank you very much for being here.

01:26 - 12.600 Thank the gentlelady, Representative Con.

01:26 - 14.602 Thank you, Mr.

01:26 - 16.004 Chairman. Thank you, Secretary Ryan.

01:26 - 18.706 Thank you for your team to two questions.

01:26 - 21.910 First, over the last three years, this House majority

01:26 - 25.113 has prioritized education, something that my father,

01:26 - 28.983 when he moved here from Pakistan, he talked to us about to his family

01:26 - 32.153 about the importance of education and investing in education.

01:26 - 34.923 And that's what we've been doing here in the Commonwealth.

01:26 - 38.927 I believe over the last three budget, we've invested over $3 billion

01:26 - 42.997 in additional funding for our students to make sure they can get a thorough

01:26 - 44.432 and efficient education.

01:26 - 45.233 In Philadelphia.

01:26 - 47.302 That's about half $1 billion.

01:26 - 50.104 And I've been hearing from our intendant

01:26 - 54.008 and from students the impact that this money has had.

01:26 - 56.611 Can you talk about what you've been seeing over

01:26 - 00.181 Pennsylvania, from teachers and from students and from parents,

01:27 - 04.018 about the impact of this historic funding that we've been able to get over

01:27 - 04.986 the last three budgets?

01:27 - 10.225 Not only can I, I would love to,

01:27 - 15.697 because we're seeing, for the first time, having this predictable funding,

01:27 - 20.101 it's school districts know what they're going to receive.

01:27 - 24.472 And, in any particular, in any particular year,

01:27 - 29.677 they recognize that they're going to be able to fill open teaching positions

01:27 - 34.849 and not fill them with substitute teachers or people who aren't highly qualified,

01:27 - 38.519 and instead, they're going to be able to employ those teachers.

01:27 - 42.757 They know that they're going to be able to reduce class sizes,

01:27 - 46.527 because, any even somebody

01:27 - 50.164 who isn't a classroom teacher can understand that

01:27 - 53.568 maybe having 15 sets of eyes on you,

01:27 - 57.739 instead of 30 sets of eyes on you, would allow you

01:27 - 01.342 to better personalize, the education that's needed.

01:28 - 05.146 School districts are able to send,

01:28 - 07.782 more students to CTE,

01:28 - 12.820 CTCs to engage in career and tech education than ever before.

01:28 - 15.657 There's a tuition cost to to doing that.

01:28 - 18.660 And instead of focusing on the tuition cost,

01:28 - 22.063 now they're able to say, this is what's right for this child.

01:28 - 25.366 And we have the funding now to make that happen.

01:28 - 28.736 And when we start to prioritize things like that over

01:28 - 33.474 trying to scramble to find money and having that deficit mindset,

01:28 - 36.878 we're going to see great outcomes.

01:28 - 40.181 And we're already seeing some of those outcomes, as I mentioned

01:28 - 44.052 earlier, in graduation rates going up for three years in a row,

01:28 - 47.322 and our math test scores going up for three years in a row,

01:28 - 51.526 and English language learners, doing better than ever before.

01:28 - 55.096 All of these things, all of these pressures together

01:28 - 00.168 are creating a better, Pennsylvania for us now and in the future.

01:29 - 02.603 That's great to hear.

01:29 - 04.672 I also wanted to talk about pre-K.

01:29 - 09.243 I know this governor has prioritized increasing funding for pre-K counts

01:29 - 12.847 and making sure that we're making this investment in our children.

01:29 - 16.918 We recently had a policy hearing about universal pre-K.

01:29 - 20.054 I have a bill with Representative Sean Dockery from Philadelphia

01:29 - 24.826 that would expand what we have in most of Philadelphia, which is a pre-K

01:29 - 29.063 program that's high quality pre-K available to all students free of charge.

01:29 - 33.067 And we've seen from the research that the students that are in this program

01:29 - 36.070 are better prepared for kindergarten, sort of levels out.

01:29 - 37.638 The students that are coming

01:29 - 41.509 in, they're better behaved, they're doing better in school.

01:29 - 45.847 Can you talk about the impact of expanding pre-K

01:29 - 49.851 so that the entire Commonwealth could have universal pre-K,

01:29 - 52.820 what that would look like if we were able to do that here in the Commonwealth?

01:29 - 57.358 Wow, talk about dreaming big.

01:29 - 59.594 Well, you're you're right on.

01:29 - 03.131 We know that if we, have students

01:30 - 06.134 who are engaged in high quality,

01:30 - 09.370 pre-kindergarten programs that not only will

01:30 - 13.274 they do better in school, but they're more likely to graduate.

01:30 - 16.711 And they, longitudinal studies have even gone

01:30 - 19.714 as far as to say that there's higher lifetime earnings.

01:30 - 23.418 So when you talk about a return on investment to say,

01:30 - 26.421 let's make high quality,

01:30 - 29.657 pre-K available for all, certainly,

01:30 - 32.460 there's, a multitude of benefits.

01:30 - 36.330 I wonder, though my mind immediately goes to something that's practical

01:30 - 39.333 and I don't want to take away from the dream of it, because I think

01:30 - 42.403 it could absolutely be, direction that we move.

01:30 - 47.275 My mind goes to we don't have, we don't have full day

01:30 - 50.278 kindergarten for all students at this point, that's mandatory.

01:30 - 53.481 And so when we're talking about implementing something

01:30 - 59.287 that into a system that already exists, I think it behooves us to take a look

01:30 - 02.857 at what we have and say, how can we backwards map to get to that spot?

01:31 - 06.961 And I think there's a couple of intermediate steps before we would get to,

01:31 - 09.630 universal pre-K.

01:31 - 14.001 But it is certainly a goal worth, worth considering and moving toward.

01:31 - 15.736 Thank you. Thank you, Secretary.

01:31 - 18.306 Thank you, Chairman.

01:31 - 19.040 Thank the gentleman.

01:31 - 21.309 Representative Nelson.

01:31 - 22.543 Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:31 - 25.413 Madam Secretary, good to see you here again.

01:31 - 29.650 I have a couple of different questions in the area of professional development,

01:31 - 34.388 specifically teacher professional development in the governor's

01:31 - 37.024 proposed, budget.

01:31 - 41.062 That line item is almost a 50 or it is a 50% increase.

01:31 - 44.832 It's it's an extra 2.5 million,

01:31 - 48.135 for professional development opportunities

01:31 - 51.138 for educators and school leaders.

01:31 - 56.477 Can you provide a little bit more details on my wife's second grade teacher?

01:31 - 59.046 You know that, they do a lot of training.

01:31 - 04.318 What are there a new standards that, you know, how is this money going to be spent?

01:32 - 06.287 Sure.

01:32 - 10.291 So, well, maybe, with a second grade teacher, we should talk

01:32 - 14.028 about professional development in in the area of cursive writing.

01:32 - 14.295 Right.

01:32 - 17.732 Something that a lot of our teachers didn't have when they went to school

01:32 - 20.701 and now are going to, are going to be teaching,

01:32 - 25.306 any time we are moving toward,

01:32 - 29.343 professional development, there's going to be associated costs with it.

01:32 - 32.446 The department maintains a robust website,

01:32 - 36.551 a standards aligned, website, the SAS website

01:32 - 41.556 where teachers can go and, look at the different courses

01:32 - 45.226 that are available and select those, free of charge.

01:32 - 50.364 So the 2.5 million is, is that to develop more courses or new courses.

01:32 - 55.002 And I mean, it certainly would certainly help us to do that.

01:32 - 58.139 Yeah, certainly help us to develop new courses,

01:32 - 01.208 to strengthen ones that are already there to look at the priorities

01:33 - 05.313 that the General Assembly has put forward and areas that we don't have any time

01:33 - 10.051 the department puts out a curriculum toolkit and we have them, for civics.

01:33 - 15.523 We have them for a 911 education and a new media literacy toolkit

01:33 - 18.759 to help kids determine fact from fiction, which is something

01:33 - 21.295 I think we all need in this day and age.

01:33 - 25.633 Particularly when I and the like is, creating some deepfakes that are out

01:33 - 26.200 there.

01:33 - 29.170 Well, it's a great example that you have on the course of education.

01:33 - 32.273 I think, you know, just going door to door and talking to people.

01:33 - 33.474 Everyone's very excited.

01:33 - 37.211 Adults are very excited that cursive is returning to the classroom.

01:33 - 39.714 So I just want to shift gears a little bit in that,

01:33 - 43.918 the teacher professional development,

01:33 - 46.954 more along the lines of act 48

01:33 - 50.491 and that, continuing education credits for teachers.

01:33 - 56.430 My office was recently made aware of some concerns for an online

01:33 - 01.035 provider, Albion Center through Idaho State University.

01:34 - 05.072 And and the concern is I guess Albion has been advertising

01:34 - 06.540 to Pennsylvania teachers.

01:34 - 11.712 And there's a growing, trend of popularity on social media.

01:34 - 15.349 I'm not on Instagram, but I just wanted to read some,

01:34 - 19.820 Jessica saying, finished my class in a day.

01:34 - 21.722 Care.

01:34 - 24.358 You can bust out 2 to 3 courses a day.

01:34 - 27.361 I did 60 credits last year.

01:34 - 30.331 Shred whoever shred is,

01:34 - 33.067 Georgia doesn't take these anymore.

01:34 - 36.570 Eric says my district caught on and doesn't allow them anymore,

01:34 - 40.908 so I guess they are offering credits.

01:34 - 44.412 But, you know, maybe the rigor isn't there.

01:34 - 45.613 A teacher isn't there?

01:34 - 48.482 Or are you familiar with Albion?

01:34 - 50.384 And you know what's happening in this?

01:34 - 54.555 At 48 space, I am one day's worth of familiar

01:34 - 57.558 with this, in that the department.

01:34 - 00.494 It came to our awareness just a day ago.

01:35 - 04.231 We certainly have some strict criteria that,

01:35 - 09.170 all providers would need to abide by.

01:35 - 12.506 And I think one of your examples

01:35 - 17.411 was 60 credits in in any, I don't know, what was it, a couple of days.

01:35 - 17.812 Yeah.

01:35 - 21.782 She said a in a year that would seem to be,

01:35 - 24.618 excessive.

01:35 - 28.556 And because for something for us to, to take a look at actually more than

01:35 - 31.559 that would be the, a credit,

01:35 - 34.829 in an hour or something to that effect.

01:35 - 35.096 Yeah.

01:35 - 39.066 What I would want to do is say, first, let's look at this

01:35 - 43.204 and make sure that what they're saying when boasting

01:35 - 46.907 is actually true and that we understand what they're saying.

01:35 - 48.809 Are they saying, like one college

01:35 - 52.480 credit hour or are they literally saying one hour?

01:35 - 54.849 So I think kind of parsing those things out is

01:35 - 57.151 something we're going to have to it'd be it'd be great

01:35 - 00.221 to work with your department, you know, moving forward on it.

01:36 - 03.090 They we did a right to know request.

01:36 - 05.192 And then that in the last three years,

01:36 - 08.329 about 2500 Pennsylvania teachers have gone through,

01:36 - 12.433 Albion taking over 10,000 classes, you know, so

01:36 - 16.337 the financial concern is those teachers are getting raises in districts.

01:36 - 17.972 They're making more money.

01:36 - 19.507 It's hitting pensions.

01:36 - 21.142 And they may be somewhat

01:36 - 24.779 not meeting that professional development standard that everybody really wants.

01:36 - 28.783 So it'd be great to work with with you guys on that moving forward.

01:36 - 30.851 Count on it.

01:36 - 31.986 Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

01:36 - 40.995 Representative Curry,

01:36 - 43.998 did you forget my name?

01:36 - 46.734 Don't do that.

01:36 - 47.768 This is a long day.

01:36 - 49.203 I'll talk you things together.

01:36 - 50.404 Thank you chairman.

01:36 - 53.274 Thank you chairman.

01:36 - 55.142 Good afternoon.

01:36 - 57.845 Secretary. Doctor Rowe and to your team.

01:36 - 59.480 Thank you for being here today.

01:36 - 02.249 You know, I love when you all come to the floor.

01:37 - 06.654 So I just want to ask you today, I hate to go backwards

01:37 - 09.757 or look to the past, because I always want to look at the future.

01:37 - 12.860 But I have to remind

01:37 - 15.963 all of us that about six years ago

01:37 - 19.667 this March, we had Covid come into the picture.

01:37 - 24.038 And so when I think about the cohort that were in third,

01:37 - 27.875 fourth and fifth grade at that time, they are all now in high school

01:37 - 31.078 and looking towards graduation.

01:37 - 33.280 The question that I have for you today is similar

01:37 - 36.550 to the question that I had probably back in 2023,

01:37 - 41.388 about what this cohort looks like now.

01:37 - 44.758 I know they have to take Keystone Exams.

01:37 - 48.562 They are getting ready to prepare for the next part of their lives,

01:37 - 53.901 but indeed, they lost a lot in that time.

01:37 - 57.271 They lost foundation of math

01:37 - 00.741 and reading, where in that third,

01:38 - 04.278 fourth and fifth grade, those years were critical.

01:38 - 08.315 And so I am wondering not so much

01:38 - 12.219 about the education part this time, but what are you seeing?

01:38 - 15.956 What trends are you seeing around the,

01:38 - 20.895 behavioral and mental health since our children in that cohort,

01:38 - 25.666 in schools is what I'm asking in that cohort were attached

01:38 - 30.304 to their Chromebooks to learn and now are still attached.

01:38 - 34.642 Just curious about the uptick that you're seeing

01:38 - 38.012 in the behavioral and mental health within the schools right now.

01:38 - 42.416 Are you asking about a correlation

01:38 - 46.253 between technology use and mental health?

01:38 - 49.890 Yes, I'm asking about it in particularly

01:38 - 53.093 with our high schoolers right now because they were in that cohort.

01:38 - 56.864 I can't forget the cohort because I have some money in my house that was in it.

01:38 - 59.967 So I'm always going to ask about it.

01:38 - 00.901 Yeah.

01:39 - 05.039 I think there has been some research, that indicates that,

01:39 - 09.109 student engagement, can,

01:39 - 12.780 be waning when there

01:39 - 15.783 is, excessive technology at use,

01:39 - 17.584 at play.

01:39 - 20.587 And that,

01:39 - 25.392 students are less likely sometimes or I guess I shouldn't limit to students.

01:39 - 28.595 All of us are less likely to engage with one another,

01:39 - 32.633 when there's excessive, technology,

01:39 - 35.869 at play. So,

01:39 - 37.404 we have seen some of that

01:39 - 41.842 and certainly we've seen an uptick in, professional development.

01:39 - 44.845 I'm sorry, in, mental health issues

01:39 - 48.315 related to those students to say that they're,

01:39 - 52.286 correlated in a 1 to 1.

01:39 - 55.022 I don't know that to be necessarily true, but I would agree

01:39 - 58.025 that we we have problems in both areas.

01:39 - 01.695 Well, I would love for PD to kind of look at that cohort.

01:40 - 06.300 I'm still very interested in them both educationally and for their mental

01:40 - 07.534 and behavioral health.

01:40 - 13.207 But I do also want to bring your attention to, my own very school district, William

01:40 - 17.311 Penn School District, who was the lead plaintiff in the school funding lawsuit.

01:40 - 22.082 Our remaining adequacy gap is almost $23 million.

01:40 - 26.954 So we are only 21% of the way to closing the gap.

01:40 - 31.525 Can you share how districts like mine are investing in these funds?

01:40 - 36.096 And you talked about a little bit with Wrap Con, but do you have suggestions

01:40 - 40.667 for those, for these funds that can be most wisely invested

01:40 - 43.804 specifically to address the needs

01:40 - 47.408 of our Covid cohort generation?

01:40 - 51.445 Certainly, I think any time

01:40 - 58.052 we are looking at, the root cause, of a particular issue and getting,

01:40 - 01.555 getting to that for a particular student or group of students,

01:41 - 04.658 we're doing the right work.

01:41 - 08.996 So with a, Covid group that is now in high school,

01:41 - 13.500 if it's determined that one of them or a particular group of them have,

01:41 - 17.638 a literacy need, then using the,

01:41 - 21.008 funding to provide, literacy coaches,

01:41 - 25.479 either for the teachers or providing teachers

01:41 - 29.049 who have a specialization in that particular area for the students.

01:41 - 33.420 Either way, one builds capacity and one deals with a specific need.

01:41 - 35.089 And in this particular case,

01:41 - 38.959 since we're about to lose that cohort out of high school, I would say deal

01:41 - 42.863 with, specific need first and build a capacity second.

01:41 - 46.633 I, I think that would probably be the

01:41 - 51.238 the best use of the, of the, of the funds

01:41 - 54.241 that schools are receiving,

01:41 - 56.743 working on issues of engagement.

01:41 - 01.081 So again, I know we talked a lot about CTC and or CTE today

01:42 - 04.651 that often is, a particular engagement issue.

01:42 - 07.621 And where students have,

01:42 - 11.792 perhaps, checked out and they might be willing to check back

01:42 - 15.395 into their education when they see that very direct

01:42 - 20.267 correlation between, their what they're learning

01:42 - 23.303 and its applicability to the rest of their life.

01:42 - 27.274 And then they can build those particular,

01:42 - 30.511 this particular skills.

01:42 - 32.012 I didn't realize I was out of time.

01:42 - 33.547 Oh. Thank you.

01:42 - 36.817 Secretary Doctorow, I always appreciate talking to you.

01:42 - 39.186 And it's always a pleasure to see your team.

01:42 - 39.953 Thank you. Chairman.

01:42 - 47.461 Thank the gentlelady, Representative Kroupa.

01:42 - 48.295 Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:42 - 51.031 And thank you all for being here this afternoon.

01:42 - 52.232 Governor Shapiro noted.

01:42 - 55.402 And then I'm going to pause for one second if I politely interrupt you, it's

01:42 - 58.405 because I have two different questions and I only have five minutes.

01:42 - 02.376 Governor Shapiro noted in his budget address that public school enrollment

01:43 - 05.546 is declining statewide, with kindergarten classes

01:43 - 08.549 now significantly smaller than graduating classes.

01:43 - 10.551 And we're really seeing that in my district.

01:43 - 13.554 I represent the 51st House district in southern Fayette County.

01:43 - 17.758 My three school districts are Albert, Gallatin, Uniontown, and Laurel Highlands.

01:43 - 20.227 And they've all recently,

01:43 - 24.364 have had discussions about closures and consolidations within the district.

01:43 - 27.301 Two of them within the last week or two, have been on the news

01:43 - 29.803 because of school board meetings on these topics.

01:43 - 32.973 One school in particular is even circulating a petition,

01:43 - 36.810 to take their elementary school to the neighboring to try to redistrict

01:43 - 38.478 into the neighboring school district.

01:43 - 40.547 If that elementary school would be closed.

01:43 - 44.284 I want to be clear that I am a firm advocate for local control

01:43 - 46.253 on these issues.

01:43 - 49.957 But and I'm not presuming whether whether closures is the right

01:43 - 53.293 and consolidation is is the right answer or the wrong answer.

01:43 - 58.532 And perhaps it may be unavoidable, but the decision to take action,

01:43 - 02.903 that type of action comes with serious trade offs, longer bus rides for students,

01:44 - 06.840 potentially increased transportation costs, expensive renovations

01:44 - 11.278 that may offset any projected savings, larger class size

01:44 - 16.750 sizes, reduced individualized attention, strain on the receiving schools,

01:44 - 21.455 and potentially the loss of neighborhood schools that serve as community anchors.

01:44 - 27.261 So my question is whether the Commonwealth has a strategic plan to help districts

01:44 - 31.732 manage this enrollment decline responsibly, rather than forcing

01:44 - 35.702 reactive decisions that disrupt students, families and communities.

01:44 - 40.140 What tools does the department provide to help districts navigate this reality?

01:44 - 46.113 Does share best practices from similarly situated districts.

01:44 - 50.083 Are planning grants available to help districts right size responsibility.

01:44 - 52.753 Are there incentives for shared services

01:44 - 56.590 or regional regional collaboration instead of closures?

01:44 - 00.961 So to be as brief as I can, thank you.

01:45 - 04.531 There is a feasibility study possibility.

01:45 - 10.404 There are limited funds that we have, to, effectuate those for school districts.

01:45 - 15.542 And because we can't always do it for them, we do have a a planning guide,

01:45 - 19.046 that has all of the questions that a school district

01:45 - 22.316 might want to consider if they're thinking about merger

01:45 - 25.352 or consolidation, which can be wholesale, where,

01:45 - 29.990 one school district no longer exists at the end of the process.

01:45 - 33.960 Or it could be a consolidation of some of their teaching staff.

01:45 - 35.862 It could be just their elementary,

01:45 - 40.033 it could be just the high school, it could be, their business offices.

01:45 - 42.936 So there's different ways that schools can go about this

01:45 - 45.939 without one school district disappearing altogether.

01:45 - 49.743 And I think if enrollment decline is a statewide trend,

01:45 - 53.146 then certainly there's a need for proper planning.

01:45 - 56.416 And I think it's fair to ask whether we have a coordinated statewide

01:45 - 01.121 response that equips districts with tools, not just tough choices.

01:46 - 05.192 We need to be planning in advance rather than just taking reactive measures.

01:46 - 08.362 But that brings me to my second line of questioning.

01:46 - 11.465 And I want to follow up on, Representative Brown's questions.

01:46 - 17.104 So when I'm looking at the, the proposed, budgets for not just the 20,

01:46 - 20.107 26, 27, but the out years

01:46 - 23.243 and the, line item for Ready to Learn Block grant,

01:46 - 28.782 there's a $565 million increase for the 2026 27 year.

01:46 - 32.552 But then it is it, from what I'm looking at, it's flat funded then

01:46 - 37.591 through the out years, including, up to and including 20, 30, 31.

01:46 - 40.761 So my question that and you're, you're shaking the head.

01:46 - 42.763 Your head. Yes. Okay. So,

01:46 - 44.164 are you

01:46 - 48.902 indicating then that that level of funding is adequate, to, to address the issues

01:46 - 52.172 that that line item, calls for on those out years?

01:46 - 56.543 No, I was, agreeing that I understood the premise

01:46 - 59.546 of your question, and, it is,

01:47 - 02.482 the what the administration does

01:47 - 05.485 is only provide out your,

01:47 - 08.688 estimates,

01:47 - 11.691 for things that are statutorily mandated.

01:47 - 15.662 So if it says, for example, in a statute

01:47 - 21.101 that this year and all subsequent years,

01:47 - 24.271 XYZ has to happen,

01:47 - 27.307 then you're going to see, in general,

01:47 - 31.278 then you would see things, written in there in out years.

01:47 - 35.015 It that it doesn't happen to be the case with the funding that you're suggesting

01:47 - 36.383 in the in the yellow lights.

01:47 - 36.583 I now.

01:47 - 37.651 So I just want to add that

01:47 - 41.688 the Pennsylvania Constitution and the administrative code required

01:47 - 45.192 not just a balanced operating budget for the ensuing fiscal year,

01:47 - 48.995 but there's a financial plan for not less than the next six succeeding

01:47 - 49.963 five fiscal years.

01:47 - 54.634 And in that, in the code specifically, it's an actual or estimated

01:47 - 59.406 operating expenditures that has to be based on reasonable detail.

01:47 - 02.609 Do you do you disagree that just level funding

01:48 - 05.378 is, inadequate to to provide that type

01:48 - 09.349 of reasonable detail that we need for appropriately to plan those years out?

01:48 - 14.754 I agree that reasonable detail is necessary,

01:48 - 18.124 and I also understand

01:48 - 21.495 that any subsequent budget is a,

01:48 - 26.299 a negotiation between the General Assembly and the administration.

01:48 - 29.703 And, and that only things that are

01:48 - 32.706 mandatory are done in out years.

01:48 - 34.975 Unfortunately, I'm out of time, but thank you very much.

01:48 - 37.043 Thank you for your time.

01:48 - 40.046 Thank the gentlelady, Representative Friel.

01:48 - 41.948 Thank you

01:48 - 42.616 Secretary.

01:48 - 45.619 Appreciate it. I have two questions.

01:48 - 48.755 One, I'll I think the easier one first is,

01:48 - 52.926 recently visited a CTE center, and,

01:48 - 54.961 very impressive.

01:48 - 57.664 It's it's really great that we're getting our high school

01:48 - 00.700 kids prepared to enter the workforce right out of school.

01:49 - 04.504 However, in this particular case and McHenry County,

01:49 - 10.377 the demand for the programs far outweighed the slots available to to us.

01:49 - 13.914 Do we have a sense of and I notice

01:49 - 17.217 the the increase in funding on the CTE line

01:49 - 22.622 is is pretty modest relative to if if this is a statewide phenomenon

01:49 - 25.592 where we have oversubscription of these programs,

01:49 - 30.931 do you have a sense of the unmet need, meaning how many students are in CTE

01:49 - 35.569 programs versus how many are requesting to be in these programs?

01:49 - 36.303 The waitlists

01:49 - 39.773 we don't actually have data

01:49 - 42.776 on the waitlists, specifically.

01:49 - 47.013 At the risk of it sounding glib, and I don't mean it this way.

01:49 - 51.952 One kid on a waitlist is too much, and we know we have that.

01:49 - 54.955 And we heard from,

01:49 - 58.124 someone who asked me a question on this side about CTE, something about,

01:49 - 01.861 600 or 700,

01:50 - 04.598 or there maybe there was a difference of 300 there.

01:50 - 06.299 It is a difference of 300.

01:50 - 07.867 So they had a waitlist of 300.

01:50 - 10.170 We know it exists.

01:50 - 12.272 And so finding some creative ways

01:50 - 15.241 to deal with space issues,

01:50 - 19.679 as well as ensuring that the programing that's being offered is,

01:50 - 23.850 meeting the needs of industry, I think are a couple of things

01:50 - 25.719 that are of particular importance.

01:50 - 28.722 Well, I would just suggest that if we could,

01:50 - 31.858 finding out what those waitlists are

01:50 - 34.694 and how many kids and what those programs are cost

01:50 - 38.798 would be helpful to this body to, judge what

01:50 - 41.701 what resources are needed to fill those gaps,

01:50 - 46.406 because relying on anecdotal information like 300 there or 125 at the one

01:50 - 50.176 I visited it, it's great, but it's anecdotal information

01:50 - 53.980 and you guys are in the best position to collect that data and provide us

01:50 - 57.317 with a roadmap on how we can close that gap and provide

01:50 - 00.654 more opportunities for students to enter the workforce,

01:51 - 04.057 you know, fully trained with the resources that that we have out there.

01:51 - 06.693 So is that something we could ask you guys to do?

01:51 - 12.165 I think there's one piece of information that I'd like to let you know,

01:51 - 16.903 and that is that the department isn't allowed to independently require schools,

01:51 - 22.008 including CTCs, to give us information that already isn't, mandated.

01:51 - 26.312 And so in order for us to collect that piece of information,

01:51 - 30.150 we would need the General Assembly to,

01:51 - 34.020 require that of the department, and then certainly we would get it for you.

01:51 - 37.023 Anything we would do other than that would be voluntary.

01:51 - 40.360 Now, I do think that CTCs would,

01:51 - 44.197 would are the majority of them any way would participate.

01:51 - 46.833 And certainly to that degree we can do it, but we can't mandate it.

01:51 - 48.601 Just so you're aware of that.

01:51 - 49.235 Not understood.

01:51 - 51.504 But it would be great if we could have have that effort.

01:51 - 54.474 So I'm going to switch gears on you, a little bit.

01:51 - 57.310 We've had you know, we have different populations

01:51 - 01.815 obviously, in our, in our schools and some of some of our schools have

01:52 - 05.085 and we see it as immigration enforcement has gone up.

01:52 - 06.720 We have

01:52 - 10.323 populations that are very vulnerable to the immigration enforcement.

01:52 - 13.927 We saw it in Minnesota play out with,

01:52 - 17.363 young children being kind of detained with the parents.

01:52 - 21.401 However, we just saw it in Pennsylvania, Joe Webster's area last week where our bus

01:52 - 23.403 was held for over 40 minutes. Why?

01:52 - 27.707 There was an eight and Ice, immigration enforcement operation.

01:52 - 31.478 What can we do to, inform schools

01:52 - 36.282 or train schools on on what are the rules regarding

01:52 - 39.285 bus stops and places where parents are going to pick up

01:52 - 42.689 kids, whether on school property or at the bus stop, and

01:52 - 46.025 and is there any help that PD can provide for the trauma?

01:52 - 47.393 Because it's very traumatic

01:52 - 51.931 for the kids, even though maybe mom or dad is being targeted, all the friends on

01:52 - 54.934 the school bus are watching somebody's parents being pulled away.

01:52 - 57.270 That's it. That's an act of trauma.

01:52 - 01.741 And what can we do to help our schools navigate this with the classes?

01:53 - 03.710 So the department

01:53 - 06.713 did issue, a dear colleague letter

01:53 - 09.883 that gets to the heart of your question.

01:53 - 13.953 It suggests, because,

01:53 - 17.490 school policies are,

01:53 - 20.226 handled at the local level, it suggests several things

01:53 - 23.229 that schools can do,

01:53 - 27.000 in, in communication and in concert with their school board,

01:53 - 31.204 their school solicitor and in their unique context to deal with,

01:53 - 35.942 this issue, it would be things like understanding what your policy is,

01:53 - 40.013 understanding what the procedure is, making sure that you're doing training

01:53 - 41.080 for your staff.

01:53 - 44.117 Because if you have it written in a policy manual

01:53 - 47.187 that something is supposed to happen, but you don't train the person

01:53 - 48.421 who's answering the door

01:53 - 51.491 on what they're supposed to do, and you have particular problems.

01:53 - 57.030 I also encouraged in the Dear Colleague letter school districts to think about,

01:53 - 00.633 having their emergency contact

01:54 - 05.271 information updated in the event that a parent is detained

01:54 - 09.442 during the school day and the student remains at the school,

01:54 - 14.280 do they have adequate information to make sure that that student gets to,

01:54 - 17.750 to another family member?

01:54 - 21.788 So there's lots of things like that that schools can do so that they can begin

01:54 - 25.725 to prepare for the possibility of something like this happening.

01:54 - 28.995 And without the the department,

01:54 - 32.365 putting our values onto school districts were simply saying,

01:54 - 34.434 these are some things that you should think about.

01:54 - 35.702 Thank you for your time.

01:54 - 38.137 Thank you. Chairman. Thanks, gentlemen. Representative Costello.

01:54 - 39.772 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

01:54 - 42.408 And, the Secretary.

01:54 - 44.043 Very nice to have you today.

01:54 - 48.281 I just have some questions with regard to dual credit innovation grant program.

01:54 - 50.416 But before that, I just want to thank you.

01:54 - 54.687 I will not be able to be there on Monday when, when you honor Kim Lock Eyes

01:54 - 59.492 or one of my good friends on March 9th for the Rise Award that she was awarded,

01:54 - 03.096 I believe this is the second time two and a year both teachers best

01:55 - 05.865 reps from Butler. So very proud of that.

01:55 - 08.167 So obviously my question is going to center

01:55 - 11.170 around the center of the universe, which is Butler County.

01:55 - 11.971 It's around.

01:55 - 15.141 But but yeah, I do have some questions

01:55 - 18.244 about the dual credit, innovation grant program.

01:55 - 21.614 Who in your department is responsible

01:55 - 24.617 for administering this program?

01:55 - 26.920 Well,

01:55 - 30.556 the practical aspect of it is handled by our department.

01:55 - 34.961 Or. I'm sorry, our, higher education, deputy.

01:55 - 39.832 And do you have your own committee that oversees these applications that come in?

01:55 - 43.803 Yes, we have a team within the deputy that reviews them.

01:55 - 46.072 And how many members are on that team?

01:55 - 48.541 It depends on how many applications that we get in.

01:55 - 51.544 We have two reviewers per application.

01:55 - 58.184 And then if scoring is within a certain parameter, we request a third review

01:55 - 03.089 to make sure that if one score was ten and another score was 90, that we have,

01:56 - 06.125 a third score to see where the discrepancy was

01:56 - 08.561 and the two reviewers that reviewed that application.

01:56 - 13.032 So you have two reviewers, and then what's the scoring committee and then what?

01:56 - 16.336 And then you said you have two reviewers that review each application.

01:56 - 21.374 No, we have about 30, reviewers that might review an application.

01:56 - 24.610 That specific number just depends on how many applications we get in,

01:56 - 27.380 how we get how many do you normally get in.

01:56 - 31.117 So last year when we launched it, I believe we had 25 applications

01:56 - 31.884 that came in.

01:56 - 34.387 So we'd have two reviewers per application.

01:56 - 35.488 And then in addition.

01:56 - 38.791 So we have anywhere between 40 to 50 reviewers that could be doing

01:56 - 41.627 is this formula driven or what is this driven by?

01:56 - 46.265 There's a rubric that is followed as can you provide that to us or is that okay?

01:56 - 47.567 Great, because,

01:56 - 50.103 just wanted to know what

01:56 - 54.273 the criteria is for when the applicants apply.

01:56 - 55.008 Is it something.

01:56 - 59.012 Because getting back to Butler, I'm sorry to ask this, but, my community

01:56 - 02.148 college was denied a their application

01:57 - 05.251 and really received no reason why or what.

01:57 - 09.422 You know, what deficiency they had, what mistake they made, if they didn't cross a

01:57 - 13.760 if there was not an I dotted, what was the you know, what were they looking for.

01:57 - 16.996 We encourage the institutions that they have specific questions

01:57 - 20.466 to reach out to our bureau so that they're able to find out

01:57 - 23.770 what was either, scored low, what was missing.

01:57 - 25.838 Sometimes it's the detail,

01:57 - 29.175 and sometimes it's dependent on the specific programs

01:57 - 32.512 and the eligibility requirements within the request for application,

01:57 - 35.948 such as are they serving in demand occupations?

01:57 - 40.119 Are they reaching those students who are in underrepresented populations?

01:57 - 43.856 And what is the partnership with the school districts in the area

01:57 - 46.993 to make sure that these students are not only being served,

01:57 - 50.763 but wraparound services are being provided and that they're receiving the best

01:57 - 52.632 quality and academic rigor.

01:57 - 55.802 So you said you received 25 applications last year,

01:57 - 59.472 and how many of those received funding and how many of those?

01:57 - 02.975 I'm just curious, were community colleges because, I mean,

01:58 - 06.746 I know this is not specific to community colleges, but,

01:58 - 10.249 it's four and it's into the system. And

01:58 - 13.553 I can get you the actual numbers for the dual credit.

01:58 - 17.390 But I can tell you that the majority of those recipients wore community colleges,

01:58 - 21.060 and it was for patchy institutions that receive the remaining funding.

01:58 - 24.297 Now, we had $14 million that went out last year

01:58 - 27.567 at an average of 1 million that they're able to,

01:58 - 30.937 be able to,

01:58 - 33.406 the maximum amount that they could apply for was $1 million.

01:58 - 36.008 It was very, very competitive throughout all the institutes.

01:58 - 38.611 And you had 14 million last year. Correct?

01:58 - 40.213 I thought the budget was only seven.

01:58 - 42.715 It was we had funding from the previous year.

01:58 - 43.649 And our budget director

01:58 - 46.886 can mentioned that as well, that we were able to combine the two.

01:58 - 47.320 So we're able

01:58 - 50.723 to expend those funds in the best way possible from our Office of Elementary,

01:58 - 54.994 Secondary and Education and our Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education.

01:58 - 57.263 Okay.

01:58 - 01.868 And moving forward, are you going to have the same funding amount

01:59 - 03.903 or are you going to ask for more money for that from

01:59 - 06.005 within your department than the appropriated amount?

01:59 - 07.173 This year is 7 million,

01:59 - 10.676 and we will always advocate for more money to be put towards that program.

01:59 - 13.679 But you took it from other programs within the department.

01:59 - 14.280 Is that what you're saying?

01:59 - 18.951 Is it was because of, budget delays that we decided

01:59 - 23.189 that we would put the two years worth of it together, seven years

01:59 - 27.894 from one year or seven from another, and, and then put it out as 14 million.

01:59 - 30.930 So then, safe to say, probably moving forward this year,

01:59 - 35.301 it won't be as much or as many, institutions receiving that money.

01:59 - 37.203 We anticipate about seven. Okay.

01:59 - 42.241 So you can get us the, the criteria that you look at, maybe why did not

01:59 - 45.244 or why some of these institutions were denied any of that.

01:59 - 47.280 Okay. Great. Thank you. I look forward to that. Thank you.

01:59 - 54.086 Representative Baumann thank you, chair.

01:59 - 56.155 And, thank you all for being here.

01:59 - 59.125 In 2024, according to PennDOT data,

01:59 - 02.128 there were about 21,000 crashes,

02:00 - 05.298 in Pennsylvania for young people,

02:00 - 08.167 between the ages of 16 and 20.

02:00 - 11.637 So I know that, driver's education is super important in order

02:00 - 14.640 to make sure that we can keep drivers safe.

02:00 - 19.579 The safe driving course appropriation reimburses schools for each student

02:00 - 23.516 that completes 30 hours of driver's education, classroom instruction,

02:00 - 26.852 and six hours behind the wheel instruction.

02:00 - 32.191 Currently, 161 local educational entities provide driver's

02:00 - 36.662 education in classroom theory behind the wheel or a combination of both.

02:00 - 40.399 Our safe driving courses. Reimbursement.

02:00 - 43.402 Is that only limited to our school districts?

02:00 - 52.111 This is going to be my first, I don't know, hold for a second.

02:00 - 52.545 That's all right.

02:00 - 55.982 It's a yes.

02:00 - 58.918 Yes, yes, only school districts.

02:00 - 59.952 All right.

02:00 - 03.155 And, do you have any recommendations on expanding,

02:01 - 06.392 access to driver's education?

02:01 - 07.760 I'm sorry. Could you say one more time?

02:01 - 10.896 No, I just wanted to see if you had any recommendations on expanding

02:01 - 13.899 a driver's education instruction.

02:01 - 15.268 Certainly.

02:01 - 20.773 I think, something that might help to expand it would be dealing with the,

02:01 - 24.777 a funding issue related to driver's

02:01 - 27.947 education, where currently only $35

02:01 - 31.384 per student is set aside as far as a subsidy is concerned,

02:01 - 36.889 that subsidy dollar amount of $35 was set in the 1960s.

02:01 - 40.726 If you adjust that to current times, it's

02:01 - 44.363 somewhere around $400, in today's dollars.

02:01 - 50.369 So I'm not necessarily saying we have to go as high as $400,

02:01 - 54.440 but on the other side, $35 teeters on absurdity, right?

02:01 - 58.477 So if we can, in some ways work on on that

02:01 - 01.914 and a simple fix that we might have and maybe I'm going

02:02 - 05.318 too far with this would be just, I'm sure I'll find out.

02:02 - 10.489 Would be to put into the statute that,

02:02 - 15.361 PD would give not less than $35

02:02 - 19.532 because that would allow us to say if we have available funds from,

02:02 - 26.205 someplace else that particularly pertains to driver's safety, that we would be able

02:02 - 29.575 to provide more on a per student basis,

02:02 - 32.578 whereas right now we're limited to $35.

02:02 - 37.083 So, addressing it in its totality, I think is your best option.

02:02 - 40.052 But we might have that intermediate step as well.

02:02 - 41.220 Thank you, I appreciate it.

02:02 - 42.455 You answered the rest of my questions.

02:02 - 45.458 Thank you.

02:02 - 46.025 Chair.

02:02 - 49.028 Thanks, gentlemen, and recognizes Representative Rigby.

02:02 - 50.629 Thank you. Chair.

02:02 - 52.998 Secretary, thank you for being here.

02:02 - 54.100 And there's been a push here

02:02 - 57.636 in Pennsylvania and nationwide to ban cell phone use in schools.

02:02 - 02.808 The data on detrimental impact of cell phone use among youth is startling.

02:03 - 06.579 Since the early 20 tens, when smartphone ownership among teens

02:03 - 11.984 skyrocketed from 23% to 73%, according to the Pew Research.

02:03 - 16.322 Rates of depression, anxiety and suicide among adolescents have surged.

02:03 - 20.926 The suicide rates of children between the ages of 10 to 14 has tripled

02:03 - 24.196 since 2007, according to the CDC.

02:03 - 27.233 In addition, half of all teens say they experience

02:03 - 30.269 cyberbullying at least once, according to Pew.

02:03 - 33.372 It's also been reported at 72% of high school teachers

02:03 - 36.542 report cell phone use as a distraction in the classroom.

02:03 - 40.713 Academically, schools have been, performance has declined.

02:03 - 45.184 Math and reading scores began dropping for the first time in 20 years in 2012,

02:03 - 48.587 according to the National Report Card or the Nation's Report card.

02:03 - 52.691 I'm sorry, the same period that marked the rapid rise of smartphones

02:03 - 55.861 and social media use among teens.

02:03 - 00.232 According to national surveys, 74% of adults and 90% of teachers

02:04 - 05.371 favor prohibiting cell phone use during class time, while 75% of teachers

02:04 - 08.574 support bill to bill bans.

02:04 - 12.678 Now, while banning cell phones won't have a direct impact on the budget

02:04 - 17.416 given the rise in mental health issues, it seems there is some correlation

02:04 - 21.520 between the increased spending on mental health and cell phone usage.

02:04 - 25.491 So my question to you it would be, do you have an opinion on banning

02:04 - 29.862 cell phones in schools and yes or no, for whatever reason?

02:04 - 32.598 If you could share your reasoning for that. Thank you.

02:04 - 34.934 Thank you for the question.

02:04 - 39.572 I think the governor has indicated that he is interested in signing

02:04 - 44.610 any bill that comes to him that, bans cell phones in schools.

02:04 - 50.616 You touch on a lot of the issues that, we're seeing in schools

02:04 - 53.819 and the one that, there's several

02:04 - 57.323 that stand out, but one of them that's can be directly correlated.

02:04 - 02.127 You can see it, in any, classroom or for that matter,

02:05 - 06.098 and in any, boardroom, would be,

02:05 - 10.736 the distraction element, the amount of notifications,

02:05 - 15.674 that we receive, from the apps that we have on our phone,

02:05 - 19.912 and the same thing occurring with students can be problematic

02:05 - 23.649 when we're wanting students to engage in, in the content.

02:05 - 26.652 Even I have my cell phone

02:05 - 30.055 sitting here face down and haven't dared to look at it one time.

02:05 - 31.090 But, you know,

02:05 - 35.361 it would be an interesting experiment to, to, to for all of us to know.

02:05 - 38.898 Like how how many things did we miss now?

02:05 - 40.733 How many phone calls did we miss?

02:05 - 42.801 How many text messages did we miss?

02:05 - 44.703 And yet life goes on and it's fine.

02:05 - 48.707 And this engagement was much more important than anything I would see here.

02:05 - 52.611 So providing that same type of, of,

02:05 - 56.849 instruction to our students to say it's going to be okay

02:05 - 01.720 if you set your cell phone aside, whether that's in one of the, bags

02:06 - 06.625 that have been suggested or not bringing it at all, whichever, works.

02:06 - 10.329 According to any bill that's passed, I think we're going

02:06 - 12.498 to see, engagement go up.

02:06 - 14.466 And that's what's most important to me.

02:06 - 15.267 Well, thank you very much.

02:06 - 18.604 And that's what I've followed up with, the response

02:06 - 22.708 where they've done this, they've seen grades have gone up, mental

02:06 - 26.245 health issues, fighting all these things have declined in the classrooms.

02:06 - 27.413 And in the schools.

02:06 - 29.882 So it certainly looks like a positive. Thank you.

02:06 - 33.619 Chair.

02:06 - 34.420 Thanks, gentlemen.

02:06 - 37.256 And recognizes Representative Mace.

02:06 - 39.758 Thank you chair, and happy women's History Month.

02:06 - 40.759 Thank you Secretary.

02:06 - 43.262 Your team, for being here today.

02:06 - 46.432 Long before I became a member of the House of Representatives,

02:06 - 50.069 I've been an advocate for health care, and young people.

02:06 - 53.339 So my question today is about

02:06 - 58.344 access and availability of comprehensive sexuality

02:06 - 02.147 education in our school districts across the Commonwealth.

02:07 - 07.920 My colleague from Montgomery County, rep Mary Jo Daley, and I intend to introduce

02:07 - 12.925 a comprehensive sexuality education bill that is medically accurate,

02:07 - 17.162 where parents have the opportunity, to opt out of this curriculum.

02:07 - 21.467 But it is important that we are educating young people about their health,

02:07 - 25.237 their well-being, healthy relationships, how we help them avoid

02:07 - 29.041 unintended pregnancy, contracting sexually transmitted diseases

02:07 - 34.480 or finding themselves a subject to human trafficking and other forms of violence.

02:07 - 39.585 So my question to you, Secretary, is, does the department

02:07 - 43.422 have a position on comprehensive sexuality education?

02:07 - 46.759 Are you hearing from the school districts about,

02:07 - 49.862 the need for a comprehensive sexuality education?

02:07 - 51.630 So certainly the

02:07 - 54.600 department is interested in,

02:07 - 58.270 the health, safety and well-being of all students.

02:07 - 03.776 Our, State Board of Education takes up the different standards.

02:08 - 06.945 And actually, right now, they are dealing with,

02:08 - 11.250 one of the sets of standards deals with

02:08 - 15.120 physical education, health and safety.

02:08 - 19.491 So this would be an excellent time to have, communication

02:08 - 23.062 with the state board and, perhaps,

02:08 - 27.566 as they're looking to update the standards.

02:08 - 30.736 And I believe the next conversation

02:08 - 34.773 related to that, to that set of standards is happening in March.

02:08 - 38.210 So, it's timely.

02:08 - 42.281 I think having them understand what it is you're interested in doing

02:08 - 45.617 and what your bill might bring to the table would be reasonable.

02:08 - 46.785 Well, look at that.

02:08 - 49.354 I'm always on time.

02:08 - 51.223 Well, I appreciate that.

02:08 - 54.426 I'm hearing from so many stakeholders, young people.

02:08 - 58.464 I'm hearing from teachers and parents, as well as,

02:08 - 01.633 comprehensive sexuality educators

02:09 - 05.637 about their concern around the present and future of the health

02:09 - 07.206 of young people in our commonwealth.

02:09 - 10.375 So I will look forward to working with all of you.

02:09 - 15.714 This is a bill that is long overdue, and our young people need,

02:09 - 19.118 as much support as possible as they transition,

02:09 - 22.287 from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood.

02:09 - 24.089 Thank you, chair, and thank you, Secretary.

02:09 - 27.493 Chair.

02:09 - 30.195 Thanks. A gentle lady and recognizes Representative Barton.

02:09 - 31.163 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

02:09 - 33.532 And thank you, Secretary Rowe, for being here.

02:09 - 36.535 And certainly this wonderful team you have with you,

02:09 - 39.772 Secretary Rowan, when I just

02:09 - 42.641 get back to a topic that you've talked about through,

02:09 - 44.476 I think 3 or 4 of my colleagues now.

02:09 - 48.380 So would you agree that the Commonwealth Court

02:09 - 52.351 mandated that the General Assembly needs to spend more money

02:09 - 55.354 on pre-K through 12 education

02:09 - 58.423 in that 2023 court case?

02:09 - 02.027 I would agree that,

02:10 - 05.030 the the court found that

02:10 - 09.568 Pennsylvania was unconstitutionally funding its, K-12 system.

02:10 - 10.869 Okay.

02:10 - 14.606 And I think you've said several times that the reason

02:10 - 17.643 the governor does not project increases

02:10 - 21.880 in the ready to Learn block grant line, line item is

02:10 - 25.984 is because it's not a mandated expense.

02:10 - 31.423 So, just help me because I'm confused, but.

02:10 - 36.895 Providing adequate is providing adequate

02:10 - 41.133 funding as a court rule, mandated or not.

02:10 - 45.470 So I was specifically talking

02:10 - 51.109 about the statutory language, for example, you'll see in certain areas

02:10 - 57.015 where a particular funding stream is required this year

02:10 - 00.686 and in all subsequent years, like it's written into that.

02:11 - 04.289 And so in those cases, that's where you're going to see,

02:11 - 07.893 that funding, be projected out.

02:11 - 11.029 At least this is my understanding of what is,

02:11 - 14.132 what is projected out and what is not.

02:11 - 15.267 So what is the court say?

02:11 - 17.736 Do we have to fund this or not?

02:11 - 20.873 The court indicates that, that there is

02:11 - 24.343 that we were unconstitutionally funding schools.

02:11 - 27.546 Then the the, Basic Education

02:11 - 30.549 Commission Funding Commission,

02:11 - 33.051 took up the mantle of determining

02:11 - 37.656 which schools and the level of funding that would be required moving forward.

02:11 - 40.192 Okay.

02:11 - 43.195 Thank you, Senator.

02:11 - 46.531 The chair thanks, gentleman.

02:11 - 49.434 And recognizes Representative Guzman.

02:11 - 50.402 Thank you, Mr. Chair.

02:11 - 53.672 And, thank you all for your time this afternoon.

02:11 - 56.642 Madam Secretary, I represent the city of Redding,

02:11 - 59.811 which has the unique distinction of being the school district

02:11 - 03.048 with the largest adequacy gap in the entire Commonwealth.

02:12 - 08.053 And to my colleagues, other, earlier point here, just to the last questions,

02:12 - 11.523 you know, the court, decided that our system was unconstitutional

02:12 - 14.192 because it discriminates based off of property wealth.

02:12 - 17.162 And I believe that this budget and all the previous budgets

02:12 - 20.332 has helped us try to fix what has been a broken system.

02:12 - 24.970 And let's not also forget that it has been this body that has defunded

02:12 - 28.407 and unfunded school districts like minds over the last decade.

02:12 - 30.442 And of course, you have politicians

02:12 - 32.878 in this building who want to blame working families.

02:12 - 36.181 But in fact, it was this body and this General Assembly that has failed

02:12 - 37.082 to live up to its duty

02:12 - 40.385 to properly fund school districts like mine in the city of Redding.

02:12 - 42.220 So with that being,

02:12 - 45.691 with that being the case and that that off the way, Madam Secretary,

02:12 - 50.062 I was one of those kids that grew up, not in the Redding School District.

02:12 - 52.798 And I remember going to school and not having anything to eat,

02:12 - 54.566 going to school during the morning times

02:12 - 58.470 and spending eight hour days with no food on my stomach.

02:12 - 02.341 And usually when I would go to school, the one time of day

02:13 - 04.309 that I would eat would usually be during lunch.

02:13 - 06.244 And so I know over the last couple of years

02:13 - 09.915 we have funded, breakfast programs here in the Commonwealth.

02:13 - 13.885 I want to give you an opportunity to highlight what those investments mean,

02:13 - 16.955 not just for the kids of the of the city of writing,

02:13 - 20.859 of which I represent, but all the kids across all 67 counties.

02:13 - 25.063 What does it mean when kids have breakfast and are able to learn

02:13 - 28.500 and be able to be engaged in classrooms when they have food in their stomachs?

02:13 - 30.602 Yeah.

02:13 - 35.207 You you, mentioned the gap that exists in Redding.

02:13 - 40.512 And there are there are issues related

02:13 - 44.416 to, concentrated poverty throughout our state.

02:13 - 49.388 We're finding that 63% of schools

02:13 - 52.391 that are, engaged,

02:13 - 55.560 in the national school lunch program,

02:13 - 58.530 or I should say, some of the schools that are engaged in the national school

02:13 - 01.533 lunch program, 63% of their students

02:14 - 04.436 are eligible for a free or reduced meal.

02:14 - 08.206 That indicates that there is a level of food instability.

02:14 - 11.977 Amongst the students, that type of instability,

02:14 - 15.113 in addition to housing instability that we often see.

02:14 - 18.517 So the governor's,

02:14 - 20.986 plan over the past three years

02:14 - 23.989 and continuing, moving forward to provide,

02:14 - 28.060 free breakfast to all students

02:14 - 32.164 has allowed 92 million breakfasts,

02:14 - 36.835 in the past year that wouldn't have otherwise been,

02:14 - 40.372 been free for students to have.

02:14 - 41.940 So, Madam Secretary, what does that mean?

02:14 - 43.308 Because I know that's such a big number.

02:14 - 46.144 And folks here numbers. Numbers like that, 92 million.

02:14 - 49.815 What does that mean for individual people or individual kids

02:14 - 52.818 like those that go to the city of Redding and goes to the Redding School District?

02:14 - 57.022 That means that a student who, is coming to school

02:14 - 59.991 isn't going to have to wonder where their next meal is,

02:14 - 03.061 that that next meal they know is going to be provided for them

02:15 - 06.565 at the school, so that they can have their basic needs met,

02:15 - 09.901 and they can be ready to meet the challenges in the classroom.

02:15 - 13.538 None of us, myself included, here at 20

02:15 - 17.909 after four, do well when when we're hungry, right?

02:15 - 22.447 Let alone a student who can't actually do the planning for themselves.

02:15 - 23.682 Right?

02:15 - 26.985 They need to, rely on their parents and the adults

02:15 - 31.022 around them to actually, provide that food for them.

02:15 - 33.091 And that's what this program does.

02:15 - 37.229 It allows them to not have to wonder when they're going to get to eat again,

02:15 - 38.163 because it's going to be there.

02:15 - 42.067 And and is it your opinion that this investment will pay dividends

02:15 - 43.201 in the years to come?

02:15 - 45.871 Absolutely.

02:15 - 48.974 It's going to allow kids that would be otherwise distracted,

02:15 - 52.777 by, you know, rumble in their,

02:15 - 55.780 in their stomach and those hunger pains,

02:15 - 00.118 to actually focus on what's being presented

02:16 - 04.022 to them in the classroom so that they can take those next steps

02:16 - 08.927 and claw themselves out of poverty by using education as its great equalizer.

02:16 - 09.794 And we thank you.

02:16 - 11.730 And we thank the governor for that investment

02:16 - 15.333 on, switching gears very quickly, because, of course, while we're highlighting

02:16 - 19.371 this positive positivity of school meals and making sure that kids

02:16 - 21.273 aren't in classrooms hungry.

02:16 - 23.041 On the flip side, though, in the city of Reading,

02:16 - 26.478 we are dealing with an issue of chronic truancy and chronic absenteeism.

02:16 - 30.015 In fact, about a thousand students in the city of Redding are labeled

02:16 - 33.218 chronic absenteeism, which is chronic, which means that they're missing

02:16 - 37.789 about 10% of their of their classrooms over the 180 day classroom period.

02:16 - 41.259 And so I'd like to hear from you, what is your department doing to help

02:16 - 45.630 identify and support chronic truancy, not just in the city of writing,

02:16 - 49.100 but all across the Commonwealth, because we know that chronic truism

02:16 - 53.271 doesn't just, it runs in families and runs over multiple generations of families.

02:16 - 57.175 And so what is your department doing to help identify and support those students

02:16 - 58.376 of chronic truancy?

02:17 - 01.046 I'll say the very

02:17 - 04.082 first thing that we need to do is help schools to identify

02:17 - 08.653 what is the root cause of the truancy, because it is going to be different.

02:17 - 11.723 Family to family certainly will see trends.

02:17 - 15.527 As you mentioned, at least one trend of something running in,

02:17 - 18.930 in families, but that's not the case for all students.

02:17 - 20.732 So determining what that is

02:17 - 24.369 and what it's going to take to get that student back in school, is it,

02:17 - 28.873 is it that the student needs to get a younger brother or sister off to school?

02:17 - 31.876 And so they're staying home so that they can make sure

02:17 - 35.447 that a younger kid, actually gets to school on time.

02:17 - 40.885 Does it relate to the family needing a student to provide additional income

02:17 - 44.356 so that they can make sure that they have, food on the table

02:17 - 47.425 and have the lights on and have a stable place to live?

02:17 - 50.562 Does it deal with the student actually,

02:17 - 52.497 believing that what they're doing in school

02:17 - 54.432 doesn't pertain to what they're going to do in life?

02:17 - 58.470 And so we need to draw that connection between the two things in a more concrete

02:17 - 59.271 way for them.

02:17 - 03.241 Let's find out what the root cause is and then work on that

02:18 - 06.511 as opposed to as opposed to just saying you're truant.

02:18 - 09.047 We're taking you to the district magistrate.

02:18 - 10.949 I'm looking forward to working with you on a solution to that.

02:18 - 11.750 Thank you, Mr. Chair.

02:18 - 13.618 The chair thanks the

02:18 - 16.621 gentleman and recognizes representative vans.

02:18 - 17.756 Thank you, chairman.

02:18 - 20.759 And thank you, Secretary Rowe, for for being here today.

02:18 - 24.429 I want to touch on a topic that, Representative Rigby had brought up.

02:18 - 26.898 And it's the cell phone use in the schools.

02:18 - 28.767 I don't know that

02:18 - 32.971 PD deserves this issue, but it's kind of fallen on your lap with the phones, right?

02:18 - 37.742 And it's a very sensitive issue, because once we remove the cell phones

02:18 - 42.047 from the from the classrooms, we have that mental health issue.

02:18 - 45.050 You know, kids think differently when that phone is hanging on a wall.

02:18 - 47.886 Kids thinks differently whenever that phone is.

02:18 - 49.587 Is it home on a counter?

02:18 - 53.892 But the issue is I do a deep dive into some of this.

02:18 - 55.927 You know, there's bullying going on in school.

02:18 - 59.097 There's there's also cameras being hidden in locker rooms.

02:18 - 02.233 And these kids are then going back manipulating these students,

02:19 - 05.603 trying to coerce them to commit suicide.

02:19 - 08.940 What what is PD ready to do moving forward?

02:19 - 12.477 Once, hopefully we can remove the phones out of the classrooms.

02:19 - 16.948 What steps can we take if there's anything that we can do from awareness

02:19 - 20.018 to make sure that our kids are mentally there,

02:19 - 24.489 and also the ones that have been somewhat manipulated in the past,

02:19 - 29.761 how do we bring them forward to help them in their mental health with it?

02:19 - 34.299 Yeah, you're bringing up some issues that have been systemic

02:19 - 37.769 over the years, whether there were cell phones in the school or not.

02:19 - 42.107 Bullying, was there was there when when we were kids.

02:19 - 47.078 And to some extent it's there now, the issue with technology,

02:19 - 52.617 was often that it extended the bullying into, the hours

02:19 - 57.789 that were past school were allowed a new avenue to, to, to get to students.

02:19 - 02.861 So, if you remove the cell phone, you're going to remove some of the avenues

02:20 - 06.331 that the kids used, to, to do the bullying.

02:20 - 09.701 But you're right that you're not going to eliminate the issue altogether.

02:20 - 13.171 One of the things that PD has done is,

02:20 - 16.107 to have student symposiums

02:20 - 20.712 where we're talking about these issues and getting feedback from them,

02:20 - 22.981 to talk about

02:20 - 26.184 what it is they perceive that they need and how it is

02:20 - 29.621 what would be the things that would make them feel more comfortable

02:20 - 33.158 in their learning environment, and to make it more safe for them?

02:20 - 36.361 I'm wondering, Deputy Secretary Lina,

02:20 - 39.330 if you could add a little bit more about the student symposiums?

02:20 - 42.367 This is a different approach because we're bringing

02:20 - 44.402 and asking the students specifically.

02:20 - 46.971 We're not just saying as adults, this is what we think you need.

02:20 - 47.972 We're listening to them.

02:20 - 50.975 So we are doing these listening sessions across the state.

02:20 - 57.248 We have about we have two more to go, and they're about 200 students at each one.

02:20 - 02.053 And what is unique is not only is PD there, we have an intermediate

02:21 - 06.291 unit representative taking notes, but they also bring someone from their school

02:21 - 09.661 and it's a safe space that we've created

02:21 - 13.031 where they talk about what's working and what needs to be done yet.

02:21 - 16.301 So what's working and what's not working and what do we need as students?

02:21 - 19.637 We're taking all of the information that we're hearing.

02:21 - 21.840 But first of all, the person at the table

02:21 - 24.843 can take that immediately back to their school and implement it.

02:21 - 28.413 But then as a broader approach, we're bringing everyone's

02:21 - 31.082 feedback together, and we're going to be implementing

02:21 - 33.418 the next steps based on the students feedback.

02:21 - 34.986 So that's coming.

02:21 - 35.253 All right.

02:21 - 35.553 Thank you.

02:21 - 37.622 And it's an issue that nobody wants to talk about

02:21 - 41.659 because nobody believes their child will do stuff like this.

02:21 - 43.027 But at the end of the day,

02:21 - 46.731 you know, it's it's parents owning up our, our children's decisions,

02:21 - 49.000 being responsible parents being in their phones.

02:21 - 52.370 And like I said, it's unfair, but it it falls into the laps

02:21 - 55.440 of our school districts because as we were saying earlier,

02:21 - 58.510 sometimes that 5 to 6 hours is the only time that child eats.

02:21 - 02.280 That's also sometimes the only 5 or 6 hours where that child is safe

02:22 - 04.048 and they need to have somebody to go to.

02:22 - 07.852 So if I can in any way help with this issue at all, please, please

02:22 - 10.355 reach out and I look forward to working with you on it. So thank you.

02:22 - 16.294 The chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes the gentleman.

02:22 - 19.297 Chairman Cutler,

02:22 - 22.934 you want to be me, not want to be you.

02:22 - 25.470 Thank you, Mr.

02:22 - 27.338 Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary.

02:22 - 30.275 I appreciate you and your team being here this afternoon

02:22 - 31.776 and I appreciate your patience.

02:22 - 35.280 I hopefully have just two quick questions here that I'd like to run by you.

02:22 - 38.616 I'm very appreciative of the governor's proposal

02:22 - 42.921 for the nearly 10% increase in the CTE, line of funding.

02:22 - 46.558 I know we've had a couple questions on that already, and I think that we're

02:22 - 50.762 seeing across our Commonwealth are growing interest as well as waiting periods.

02:22 - 54.032 Unfortunately for students, exploring and ultimately taking advantage

02:22 - 57.769 of the opportunities, the governor's budget affirmed that by increasing

02:22 - 02.907 the funding for a PD approved CTE program, however, more money

02:23 - 07.612 going towards an unchanged system does not automatically guarantee success.

02:23 - 11.349 I saw in the governor's budget that it included, and I'm quoting,

02:23 - 16.120 reforms to CTE to allow students greater flexibility in completing technical

02:23 - 20.925 and academic coursework and enable earlier access and national competency exams.

02:23 - 23.394 Accelerating entry into the workforce.

02:23 - 26.230 Do you have any sense

02:23 - 29.467 of what policy changes he might be

02:23 - 32.270 advocating for that perhaps

02:23 - 36.107 you and the members of the department are asking that we update.

02:23 - 40.378 And so one of the things that comes to mind is something

02:23 - 43.715 that I shared earlier related to when do we,

02:23 - 47.585 when do we expect that the,

02:23 - 49.787 nocatee exam is going to be given?

02:23 - 51.589 It's,

02:23 - 54.125 it's a reasonable that we should say

02:23 - 57.061 it perhaps is unreasonable to make students

02:23 - 00.031 wait until their 12th grade year for no good reason.

02:24 - 00.999 Right?

02:24 - 04.402 If they have finished their coursework in 11th grade and can take the test

02:24 - 07.739 at that point, that should be something that we look into.

02:24 - 11.809 And I'd be interested in hearing from career and tech centers and others

02:24 - 15.513 who are involved in this work to make sure that my logic isn't faulty in that way,

02:24 - 18.716 but that would be one policy change that could,

02:24 - 22.654 effectuate a major difference in in this area.

02:24 - 25.023 Is it your.

02:24 - 28.192 I know you said originally that the knockout exam, specifically,

02:24 - 31.195 you would need legislative authority in order to make that change.

02:24 - 36.167 Do you have any other areas where you might need legislative updates,

02:24 - 39.370 in order to facilitate that kind of forward thinking?

02:24 - 44.642 And I'm happy to have the conversation after this.

02:24 - 47.645 I just wanted to kind of put a bookmark in that if we could.

02:24 - 52.350 Yeah, I, I think I would be interested in talking more about it

02:24 - 57.522 and making sure that, for perhaps the deputy secretary

02:24 - 01.726 or the director specifically related to career in tech has an opportunity

02:25 - 06.464 to share from a place of experience what policy changes might be useful.

02:25 - 07.799 Wonderful.

02:25 - 10.201 I look forward to that conversation.

02:25 - 14.405 Madam Secretary, additionally, I have not yet seen the governor indicate

02:25 - 18.342 whether or not he wishes to opt into the new federal

02:25 - 21.546 tax credit program for individual contributions and scholarships

02:25 - 24.682 contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill act I

02:25 - 27.752 and the members of our education committee have sent a letter to the governor.

02:25 - 31.622 Has he indicated to you one way or another about what the plan

02:25 - 34.092 is to potentially open up those opportunities

02:25 - 35.960 for many of our students here in the Commonwealth

02:25 - 37.895 by opting into the federal program.

02:25 - 41.432 I think,

02:25 - 42.633 I'm cautiously

02:25 - 45.636 optimistic about the possibilities here.

02:25 - 50.541 There's a lot of things that are reasonable within the program

02:25 - 54.445 itself, in the specific uses of the funds.

02:25 - 56.114 For example,

02:25 - 01.052 that could benefit both, public schools as well as, private schools.

02:26 - 06.557 The thing that stands in the way of actually having an answer at this point

02:26 - 09.660 is that the, IRS hasn't put

02:26 - 12.630 forward the final rules on this matter yet.

02:26 - 15.399 They did request,

02:26 - 17.635 input from the states,

02:26 - 20.638 and it could be private individuals as well.

02:26 - 24.876 And they are sifting through what was given to them,

02:26 - 29.280 and then they will put out, draft rules.

02:26 - 32.483 At that point, I think we'll have a better understanding

02:26 - 34.819 of what the actual rules of the program are

02:26 - 38.589 and whether or not it's something that we should enter into, whether or not

02:26 - 43.194 it's a good idea that we put in kind of an intermediary of a,

02:26 - 46.931 an sgo to make some of the decisions

02:26 - 52.804 related to education and how the funding will flow, or not, as an example.

02:26 - 54.539 All right. Thank you, Madam Secretary.

02:26 - 58.042 I appreciate your answer in the forward to working with you specifically on,

02:26 - 01.979 the career and technical world, but also any updates on these,

02:27 - 04.282 tax credit one as well.

02:27 - 06.784 Thank you. Okay. Thank you

02:27 - 07.652 chair. Thanks, gentlemen.

02:27 - 10.121 And recognizes Chairman Schwab.

02:27 - 11.222 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

02:27 - 12.890 We round up an appropriations.

02:27 - 15.660 So we're going to say good evening, to everyone.

02:27 - 16.594 Thank you all for being here.

02:27 - 17.461 Thank you for

02:27 - 20.798 your continued partnership and all of the, great work from the department.

02:27 - 24.635 I know I speak for my colleagues and the members of my committee on

02:27 - 27.805 with a very sincere thank you for all that you do.

02:27 - 30.274 Appropriations hearings are funny because a lot of times

02:27 - 32.310 people are drilling down on very specific things.

02:27 - 33.744 And I certainly understand that.

02:27 - 34.979 But I want to take a step back.

02:27 - 35.913 I know it was touched on

02:27 - 39.984 by one other member, the, the, the progress that we have made,

02:27 - 43.921 in the last couple of years, specifically since we,

02:27 - 47.325 incorporated the new adequacy formula with,

02:27 - 52.063 with, the through the Basic Education Funding Commission and such,

02:27 - 56.734 and the way it's moving the needle for students across the Commonwealth.

02:27 - 00.271 Again, I know we touched upon it briefly earlier, but can we continue

02:28 - 03.274 to have the conversation about what we're seeing in,

02:28 - 06.510 test scores, graduation rates, and those sorts of things?

02:28 - 08.045 Sure.

02:28 - 11.749 We can start with the four year graduation cohort rate.

02:28 - 16.487 We've seen that increase for the third, consecutive year.

02:28 - 20.458 We've also seen regular attendance.

02:28 - 22.226 I don't think that that's something that I've mentioned yet.

02:28 - 27.265 Regular attendance increase for the second consecutive year.

02:28 - 33.137 So having more students in school engaging in the good, and the high quality

02:28 - 37.008 curriculum is begetting, that higher graduation rate.

02:28 - 40.711 We have a, a career standards

02:28 - 44.282 benchmark, as part of our future ready index.

02:28 - 48.719 And we're seeing that, remain stable and high.

02:28 - 55.726 We've actually received, a nationwide recognition for our work related to,

02:28 - 57.795 careers

02:28 - 01.198 and career exploration in the middle schools, specifically

02:29 - 06.437 so that we're not waiting until a student is in high school to begin those plans.

02:29 - 11.042 So, the the particular accolade comes through,

02:29 - 15.413 a paper dealing with extending the runway.

02:29 - 18.716 So if somebody is interested in learning more about that,

02:29 - 21.519 our proficiency rates in math

02:29 - 24.588 have increased for the second year.

02:29 - 30.428 And I think I mentioned before that our English, learner growth and attainment

02:29 - 35.466 rate is the highest it has ever been since we began measuring this.

02:29 - 39.503 So, the vast majority of the indicators,

02:29 - 43.674 that we look at and the future index are indicating

02:29 - 47.111 that we are moving in the right direction and that this money

02:29 - 50.881 is having a positive effect on student outcomes.

02:29 - 52.616 And, I really appreciate that.

02:29 - 54.185 And I think there's a couple of points that we need

02:29 - 56.487 to remind members of and remind the public of.

02:29 - 57.855 And that's the

02:29 - 01.125 the latest round of testing scores that that we've received in this data,

02:30 - 05.863 because it is a lagging indicator, is really only the first year of the beef.

02:30 - 09.633 So the first tranche of $500 million

02:30 - 13.437 that we've spread out over those, you know, roughly 380 school

02:30 - 17.274 districts is only now beginning to show up in the test scores.

02:30 - 19.043 And I think that's an important part.

02:30 - 22.113 So I mean, obviously, I don't want to predict or guarantee

02:30 - 23.881 what our what our data is going to be next year.

02:30 - 26.083 But the the trend lines are good.

02:30 - 29.487 And let's talk about the English language learners for a second because,

02:30 - 32.690 that is the one that the that is the indicator

02:30 - 35.693 that you mentioned that, that I think is most directly correlated

02:30 - 39.930 to the, additional funding because the additional funding targets,

02:30 - 44.168 communities that has a high a high number of those,

02:30 - 47.338 they're one of the weighted, scores when we're when we're figuring,

02:30 - 50.041 we're figuring out our, as part of our formula.

02:30 - 53.044 So I think what we're seeing is, you know,

02:30 - 56.280 sort of globally that the work and the investment is paying off,

02:30 - 00.918 but with those most at risk and those students that were the,

02:31 - 03.854 I want to use my language is the right words.

02:31 - 07.525 I'll say lowest achieving according to test scores, not lowest

02:31 - 10.828 potential, not, you know, but the lowest achieving by a test

02:31 - 14.799 scores are the ones that are benefiting the most from this continued investment.

02:31 - 19.470 Is that a fair categorization or do we not have enough data on that yet either?

02:31 - 22.440 Answers. Obviously, I think that's a fair categorization.

02:31 - 22.606 Okay.

02:31 - 27.878 I think we're seeing that vulnerable populations are benefiting from having,

02:31 - 31.215 the universal free breakfast

02:31 - 35.186 so that they can focus on, on the learning that's in front of them.

02:31 - 35.886 And while they're

02:31 - 38.889 focused on that learning, the teacher that's in front of them is,

02:31 - 41.892 high quality, high quality, highly certified

02:31 - 46.063 Pennsylvania teacher and, not a substitute.

02:31 - 49.567 Somebody who's stepping into to that for a short period of time.

02:31 - 51.102 We're seeing,

02:31 - 54.004 additional counselors,

02:31 - 57.875 both, school counselors as well as mental health counselors

02:31 - 01.078 in schools taking care, again of some of those basic needs.

02:32 - 05.249 Naturally, all of these things, are providing

02:32 - 09.487 for higher, or better outcomes in our students.

02:32 - 09.920 Yeah.

02:32 - 12.523 The point was never additional money for the sake of additional money,

02:32 - 16.260 we all demanded, outcomes the legislature when we appropriated that money.

02:32 - 18.496 But I certainly know you and, you and your Department

02:32 - 19.230 of the administration,

02:32 - 21.765 the governor expected those results, and we're seeing them.

02:32 - 22.433 So kudos to you.

02:32 - 25.436 And thank you all.

02:32 - 28.472 Thank the gentleman, chairman Susie.

02:32 - 31.475 Thank you, Chairman Harris.

02:32 - 34.378 Secretary roll,

02:32 - 35.679 do you anticipate

02:32 - 40.951 the $565 million in adequacy funding being available

02:32 - 43.954 in the 2728 budget?

02:32 - 48.626 I anticipate that

02:32 - 52.563 there will be funding, made available so that,

02:32 - 56.867 we can continue to close the adequacy gap.

02:32 - 59.904 So you do expect for it to be there?

02:33 - 04.275 I anticipate that we're going to be moving towards,

02:33 - 08.012 constitutionally funding our schools and the,

02:33 - 12.483 Basic Education Funding Commission,

02:33 - 15.586 came up with the list of schools and the dollar amount.

02:33 - 18.589 And it would seem that all indications are that's what the,

02:33 - 20.891 General Assembly is moving toward.

02:33 - 21.892 So the answer is yes.

02:33 - 24.895 It should be shown in the 2728 budget,

02:33 - 28.165 at least in the outlying years.

02:33 - 31.168 I see where you're going now.

02:33 - 34.471 In the statutory language

02:33 - 37.508 that currently exists, does it say,

02:33 - 41.812 in this year and all subsequent years?

02:33 - 45.783 So we should expect to see that in the budget items that we have in front

02:33 - 49.353 of us now. Yet we don't. So

02:33 - 51.555 thank you.

02:33 - 55.125 The point the point is, you know, we're looking at a budget proposal

02:33 - 58.128 that's $53 billion, right?

02:33 - 02.833 Far exceeding our expected revenues by about $6.4 billion.

02:34 - 06.203 The governor proposes draining our emergency stabilization

02:34 - 07.805 fund by about 4.5 billion.

02:34 - 10.074 And completely draining our reserves.

02:34 - 13.544 And yet, there's nothing shown in the outlying years

02:34 - 17.648 when we know that funding is necessary, is expected to be there.

02:34 - 19.950 Is that not misleading?

02:34 - 22.786 At best?

02:34 - 25.456 I think that,

02:34 - 28.292 the negotiation between the General Assembly

02:34 - 32.029 and the administration is what is most important

02:34 - 36.300 and that, neither side is presuming what the other will do,

02:34 - 39.303 but rather working forward in good faith with each other.

02:34 - 41.272 I think you understand our concerns.

02:34 - 44.241 So you mentioned predictability for the school districts.

02:34 - 46.944 And I think at a time when we know our revenues

02:34 - 49.980 aren't going to meet the spending proposal and are draining down our reserves

02:34 - 54.218 to show that that funding isn't going to be accounted for in the future.

02:34 - 55.019 I think,

02:34 - 58.055 it really creates

02:34 - 02.926 an unknown for the school districts, when in fact we know it's going to be there.

02:35 - 04.762 And the governor is saying we're not going to need

02:35 - 07.765 these increases in the future yet again,

02:35 - 10.768 you agree it will be there.

02:35 - 13.771 I appreciate your perspective and I'll be sure to pass it along.

02:35 - 14.972 Well, thank you.

02:35 - 18.208 I think we need to be honest about our current fiscal situation here

02:35 - 19.610 in this Commonwealth.

02:35 - 22.613 And education funding, as we noted in the beginning, is a

02:35 - 25.649 a big piece of of our state budget.

02:35 - 28.218 So I think that honesty is necessary.

02:35 - 31.088 Looking at the outlying years moving forward.

02:35 - 34.091 Just to change change your perspective here.

02:35 - 38.162 We had a lot of conversation today about career and technical education,

02:35 - 39.330 and rightly so.

02:35 - 41.265 And I do appreciate the visit that you made

02:35 - 43.334 to the Indiana County Technology Center.

02:35 - 46.770 I guess it was last year emphasizing the importance of that.

02:35 - 50.307 So, you know, as we look at our energy industry growing again

02:35 - 51.208 here in Pennsylvania,

02:35 - 55.713 the need for additional skilled labor, the building trades across the board.

02:35 - 57.481 I appreciate your focus on that.

02:35 - 59.583 And we want to see that continue as well.

02:36 - 03.187 I also want to mention you were there,

02:36 - 05.689 but I don't think the facility was quite ready yet.

02:36 - 08.659 The, Challenger Learning Center. Are you familiar with that?

02:36 - 12.696 I am not it is, a NASA, administered program

02:36 - 15.933 that teaches kids Stem education by literally

02:36 - 19.169 creating a space shuttle experience inside a building.

02:36 - 20.671 So we've actually constructed

02:36 - 23.707 that in Indiana County, and it's part of the Westmoreland County

02:36 - 27.778 Community College campus, right next door to the Indiana County Technology Center.

02:36 - 29.546 They have a slight funding gap.

02:36 - 31.949 They're ready to bring the simulator in this fall.

02:36 - 34.351 So I would invite you to come out and see that.

02:36 - 36.720 And maybe we need to find a way to help them

02:36 - 39.356 get over that threshold of the additional money

02:36 - 42.659 they need, which could be somewhere around 750,000 to $1 million.

02:36 - 46.163 But this is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, and it will serve,

02:36 - 50.734 as I believe, about 18 different counties bringing kids in, on field trips

02:36 - 54.838 to experience what it's like to actually run, a NASA,

02:36 - 56.807 space expedition.

02:36 - 59.076 So it's really cool, right?

02:36 - 03.680 And so I hear if I did visit, I'd

02:37 - 07.651 get to see what it's like to experience that, as well as spend time with you.

02:37 - 10.053 Absolutely. Yes. Count me in.

02:37 - 11.855 The invitation has been given.

02:37 - 14.858 And then just lastly, you know, as we're talking about,

02:37 - 18.395 you know, the, the, demographics for K through 12 students,

02:37 - 22.132 decreasing the increasing cost and funding for education.

02:37 - 25.302 Are you looking at ways to help school districts save money?

02:37 - 29.039 I hear a lot from my superintendents about unfunded mandates,

02:37 - 30.641 about a lot of paperwork, red tape.

02:37 - 32.209 They have to go through,

02:37 - 34.845 particularly around, standardized testing and things like that.

02:37 - 38.282 But are there, things that you're looking at to help school districts

02:37 - 41.285 save money moving forward,

02:37 - 43.987 related specifically to unfunded mandates?

02:37 - 46.623 The department does not create the mandates.

02:37 - 49.259 We simply take whatever the General Assembly

02:37 - 53.430 puts forward as far as mandates are concerned, whether or not the General

02:37 - 58.268 Assembly also appropriates funding to go, with those mandates.

02:37 - 00.304 And we implement them in the schools.

02:38 - 04.608 So I can't necessarily do anything there apart from, say, that I'm a willing

02:38 - 10.347 partner with, the House and the Senate to take a look at any of the mandates

02:38 - 14.585 that are out there and advise on which are particularly onerous.

02:38 - 16.019 Right.

02:38 - 19.289 Either from a time standpoint or from a monetary standpoint.

02:38 - 20.491 No, I understand that.

02:38 - 23.494 I meant the things that are under your purview, perhaps,

02:38 - 26.396 that you could, you know, revisit or look at.

02:38 - 30.734 I believe there is actually groups working on some of these things

02:38 - 34.771 to share with PD, to share with us on ways that cost could be reduced.

02:38 - 36.440 So I know we're way over time.

02:38 - 38.542 I appreciate that, Chairman Harris.

02:38 - 41.278 But, you know, we look forward to working with you on these issues in the future.

02:38 - 42.613 So thank you.

02:38 - 44.081 Thank the chairman.

02:38 - 47.518 Madam Secretary, I have a real quick, line of questioning for you.

02:38 - 49.486 You were confirmed by the state Senate.

02:38 - 53.390 Last at the end of last year, correct?

02:38 - 56.493 I was after you were confirmed, did you take the oath of office?

02:38 - 59.730 I did, and that oath of office, did you,

02:39 - 03.534 swear to uphold the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

02:39 - 04.768 I did okay.

02:39 - 07.371 Do you believe in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

02:39 - 10.274 I do okay, madam Secretary,

02:39 - 13.277 on February the 7th of 2023,

02:39 - 16.914 a Commonwealth court issued a ruling in

02:39 - 19.917 William Penn School District versus the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

02:39 - 21.785 Are you aware of that ruling?

02:39 - 22.486 I am.

02:39 - 25.088 Would you like to explain that ruling quickly?

02:39 - 26.723 And just a brief overview.

02:39 - 28.258 What did the judge say?

02:39 - 30.961 That, schools have been

02:39 - 36.466 historically and unconstitutionally funded for a significant period of time

02:39 - 40.270 and that remedies remedies needed to be made. So,

02:39 - 42.139 I agree with

02:39 - 45.142 your what you said about, the court ruling.

02:39 - 48.545 As you look at the court ruling, I think the judge actually also said that,

02:39 - 53.550 our students, they're required to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed

02:39 - 56.520 and that basically because of the lack of funding

02:39 - 59.156 that we were denying our young people that opportunity.

02:39 - 00.490 Would you agree with that assessment?

02:40 - 04.094 I would saying that you took an oath of office,

02:40 - 07.998 to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution, seeing that you said you believe

02:40 - 08.799 in the Pennsylvania

02:40 - 12.603 Constitution, seeing as, quite honestly, every member of the general Assembly

02:40 - 15.839 took an oath of office to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution.

02:40 - 20.410 Would you say that this General Assembly has a requirement to to find itself

02:40 - 24.414 in constitutionality with regards to the Commonwealth court's ruling? Yes.

02:40 - 25.582 Okay.

02:40 - 29.353 Over the last two years, the General Assembly

02:40 - 32.756 has saw fit to put money into an adequacy bucket.

02:40 - 36.960 What is the purpose of the funding that goes into the adequacy bucket?

02:40 - 40.764 It's to fill the gap that exists from that,

02:40 - 42.866 from that period of time

02:40 - 46.503 where schools were unconstitutionally, funded.

02:40 - 50.407 So would you say that the money that is being put into the adequacy bucket

02:40 - 54.211 is our response to the Commonwealth court's ruling?

02:40 - 56.246 I would

02:40 - 58.915 so would you say that we have a responsibility

02:40 - 02.319 to continue to do that in order to reach constitutionality?

02:41 - 06.857 Yes. So would you say that not doing so would keep us into a position

02:41 - 10.727 where we remain unconstitutional and be violating the order

02:41 - 12.396 that was given by this judge?

02:41 - 13.864 Yes, absolutely. Okay.

02:41 - 14.231 Thank you.

02:41 - 18.101 So much, for, answering those questions, it would seem to me,

02:41 - 23.040 that this General Assembly has a responsibility, seeing as though

02:41 - 26.576 all of us took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the Commonwealth,

02:41 - 30.614 and we have a Commonwealth Court ruling that says that we're unconstitutional.

02:41 - 34.951 And no one appealed the ruling,

02:41 - 39.289 no one appealing the ruling, meaning that means that we agreed with the ruling

02:41 - 42.859 and that the ruling is now the law of this land and therefore

02:41 - 46.897 we have to address it as the Commonwealth.

02:41 - 49.900 Would you agree that we have a responsibility to address it? Yes.

02:41 - 52.135 I would agree that we have a responsibility to address it.

02:41 - 56.673 Would you say that we have a constitutional mandate to address it?

02:41 - 59.876 I would say that we have a constitutional mandate to address it,

02:41 - 03.146 which would be in line with the oath of office that you and I took.

02:42 - 05.849 Correct? I agree, thank you so much.

02:42 - 10.187 And thank you, Madam Secretary and the Department of Education for being here.