00:00 - This program has been paid for by the sponsor and does not reflect

00:03 - the views of PCN.

00:27 - Welcome to the Keystone Education Report, where Pennsylvania's education

00:31 - leaders come together to discuss the issues shaping our schools.

00:35 - Today, we're focusing on the state budget and its impact on education

00:38 - across the Commonwealth.

00:40 - Joining us is Senator Scott Martin, who represents the 13th

00:43 - senatorial district serving Berks and Lancaster counties,

00:46 - and he serves as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

00:48 - Thanks for being here.

00:49 - Thanks for having me.

00:50 - Well, let's jump right into it and talk about the current budget

00:53 - discussions going on at the state. And it seems

00:54 - like a lot of the conversation revolves around the revenue situation.

00:58 - How do you see the revenue impacting the work that you're doing right now

01:01 - on the budget?

01:03 - Well, you know,

01:03 - it's obviously critically important, especially if we're dealing with a,

01:06 - you know, multibillion dollar structural deficit.

01:09 - You know, the Commonwealth has been committed.

01:11 - Pretty much coming out of Covid is how do we make this state more competitive

01:15 - from a tax rate perspective?

01:17 - How do we have growth.

01:18 - And hopefully that growth will end up leading to revenues.

01:21 - And we've continued on a phased down path on things like the corporate

01:24 - income tax, the net operating loss carry forward provisions,

01:28 - and other growth policies to try to do that.

01:32 - Now, those things don't happen overnight.

01:34 - Those things have to turn a corner where we can start

01:36 - to see that potential growth,

01:37 - whether it's in the energy industry or in any industry.

01:40 - So we I would say,

01:43 - that we had a couple years here where we saw

01:46 - some real fluctuations in our revenues, almost like a sputtering, perhaps.

01:51 - What we've been seeing of late is showing some promise.

01:56 - And that's a good thing.

01:57 - Now, if revenues are running close to, you know, 800,

02:01 - 900 or even $1 billion over estimate, that's a really good thing.

02:05 - However, we also want to make sure that we keep the perspective that when we

02:08 - still when spending is still greatly outpacing the rate of growth of revenues,

02:13 - that will continue to be a problem and kind of what we're up against the wall

02:16 - with right now.

02:17 - So, revenue growth, we all cheer for that.

02:20 - But at the same time, we also want to see things done,

02:22 - especially with our changing demographics

02:24 - in Pennsylvania and how it impacts different services.

02:27 - You know, how do you rightsize in certain areas to invest in other areas?

02:31 - And when you know that your fastest growing age demographic is 80 and above

02:35 - your second fastest age group, that demographic, 65 and above.

02:39 - And what we're seeing is this continual shrinkage of our K

02:43 - through 12 age kids that are graduating out of our pipeline.

02:46 - We got to turn that trend around because that's our future workforce.

02:49 - That's our future tax base.

02:51 - It's why we need to go above and beyond to incentivize and keep not

02:55 - only our kids here in PA as other states have been trying to poach them.

02:59 - It's very critically important that we, make a good shot

03:03 - when you're the second largest importer

03:05 - of out-of-state students in the country for post-secondary education.

03:08 - Be nice to keep more of them here, too.

03:10 - So we're kind of going through a lot of different ideas.

03:13 - Programs like grow PA, which I know a lot of the schools

03:16 - are pushing with a lot of the students and getting a commitment to stay here.

03:19 - We're trying to infiltrate some out-of-state pipelines to

03:23 - to keep those kids here as well.

03:24 - So it sounds like from an appropriations chair, you're kind of looking ahead

03:28 - and let's not get over it, get out over our skis

03:30 - and, spend everything that we see coming in right away.

03:33 - Let's be, you know, kind of careful and plan long term.

03:36 - Well, that's a great way to put it, because, yes, there's,

03:40 - every budget's different, presents different dynamics, presents

03:44 - different positives in terms of revenues or maybe negative sometimes.

03:48 - But at the end of the day, your long term projections on how you spend

03:52 - it's important to look a few years out, because you can try to manage it

03:56 - and keep this Commonwealth fiscally stable as well.

03:59 - As we're recording this, you are in the throes of negotiations

04:02 - and kind of talking about it.

04:04 - How does education fit into the

04:06 - conversations that are occurring right now and what does that look like?

04:08 - So, you know, education is typically

04:10 - one of the top topics, when it comes to negotiations.

04:14 - And, you know, a lot of people may think that it's always

04:16 - just about the number, though the number is critically important,

04:20 - but it's also the wrestling match

04:23 - on all the things that maybe go into that.

04:26 - Where are we growing in the Commonwealth?

04:28 - Where are we not growing?

04:29 - Where do we need to potentially rightsize?

04:32 - There is no one size fits all solution.

04:34 - You have formulas

04:35 - and how it drives out money, which are always a topic of conversation.

04:39 - And they're important because if you're

04:40 - from a growing school district, you want the funding to follow the growth.

04:44 - If you're from a school district that's lost 30% or more in

04:48 - some cases of their enrollment over the last few years.

04:51 - Well, should they keep getting the same amount of resources?

04:54 - So there's always those kind of tug tug awards that occur.

04:58 - But they're healthy conversations.

05:00 - It's an ever changing dynamic from year to year.

05:03 - But it is pretty much the premier issue typically,

05:06 - that is at the negotiation table alongside,

05:09 - you know, how are we going to have growth policies

05:11 - in this state till federal government funding budgets seem to be in the news

05:15 - an awful lot over the last couple of years.

05:17 - How does that impact the work and the conversations

05:19 - that you're trying to have at the state delivered on time, budget?

05:22 - You know, how do you how do you fit that into the equation to make sure that

05:26 - that you can get your job done, maybe even while you're waiting

05:28 - for the federal government to make up their minds?

05:30 - Well, and as you know, it's, kind of this unusual period of time

05:34 - where we've had changes of administration every four years going back to 20, 2016.

05:39 - And so that comes with different things that they like to do

05:42 - and some pretty high ticket items.

05:44 - Not just on the education front, but probably the number one state,

05:47 - federal program that there is, which is the number one

05:50 - cost driver of our budget is Medicaid.

05:52 - And so when there's changes there, we have that program has grown tremendously.

05:55 - And just just for perspective, when I came into the Senate, Medicaid was

05:59 - and that was in 2017.

06:00 - Medicaid was a $27.5 billion state and federal program

06:04 - that's now approaching $43 billion.

06:07 - And I, you know, in my 10th year.

06:09 - So, any changes that they make, requirements that they have, you know,

06:13 - we have new ones coming in related to work requirements and what kind of impact

06:16 - that's going to be not only impacts what we're going to do this year.

06:21 - But also as we project when they have deadlines

06:23 - for implementation of programs like work requirements.

06:26 - What can we potentially see in terms of, impacts on what we have to spend?

06:32 - So but it's well beyond just Medicaid.

06:34 - The Snap program is another big one.

06:36 - They really want to hold states accountable in terms of error rates.

06:40 - Pennsylvania had a 17% error rate, which upon the worst in the country.

06:44 - And they're basically saying, if you don't get it under 10%,

06:46 - you're going to pay more of the admin cost.

06:48 - So we want to make sure that we're investing to make sure

06:51 - that the folks who are running those programs are making correct payments

06:55 - to the right individuals who qualify, so that the Commonwealth isn't picking up

07:00 - more of the tab instead of the federal government.

07:02 - We have a little bit of time left.

07:03 - I want to ask you a couple of of education funding questions.

07:05 - As you should expect, school safety, security, always a hot topic,

07:10 - always something that parents are concerned about.

07:12 - Anything you can share with us in terms of priorities?

07:15 - Yeah.

07:15 - Fiscal or otherwise, as we as we look ahead, where does that fit

07:19 - into the conversations?

07:20 - So, if you recall, act 44 of 2018 established

07:24 - not only the safe to Say program, but also the School Safety

07:27 - and Security Grant program, which I was the author of.

07:29 - And, last year we went through an LVC study

07:34 - because we want to see where those investments are going.

07:36 - You know, can we perhaps expand, you know, you only can put in

07:40 - maybe so many, hard capital improvements.

07:43 - Maybe we need to have more flexibility

07:44 - for maybe mental health related things in the schools.

07:47 - It's always a focus of ours. It's something it's very important.

07:49 - I, that was a very bipartisan bill when it was created as well too.

07:54 - So I see a continual commitment by the Commonwealth in that area.

07:57 - Facilities are another one you mentioned earlier.

07:59 - You know, schools grow, schools shrink, that sort of thing.

08:02 - But but it seems like facility costs are always there.

08:04 - And that's been a challenge for the Commonwealth over the last several years.

08:07 - Where do we go?

08:09 - You know, it's a it's a tough one because what we also need to see

08:12 - at the same time is, is, is if you need to grow and create facilities in one area,

08:17 - we have to reduce our capital expenditures and maintenance in other areas

08:21 - where you need the right size. Here's the good news though.

08:24 - I give credit.

08:25 - You know, my school district Lancaster's down 1,315%.

08:28 - Enrollment in the last few years.

08:30 - They're actually closing an elementary school.

08:31 - Finally, you probably seen in the school district of Philadelphia, which obviously

08:35 - is our biggest school district. They are talking about closing.

08:38 - It was 20 buildings originally.

08:40 - I think it might be 18. Right now.

08:42 - Those are the kind of things allow us to programmatically, then be able to adapt

08:46 - and shift resources to where you need to have the growth in certain areas.

08:50 - So, it goes hand in hand.

08:52 - Oftentimes people look at that from a black and white perspective.

08:56 - What a reality is.

08:57 - And, and how you are able to sustain a program long term is you got to make

09:01 - changes on both sides of the ledger.

09:03 - And that's what we also need to do, not just in the, in capital related,

09:07 - expenditures, but you know, where it goes in the state, who's growing, who's not.

09:11 - And, you know, I'll bet coming from an area of the state

09:14 - that has grown tremendously over the last few generations, you know,

09:17 - the the formulas and the assistance really didn't come.

09:21 - So a lot of that was borne by local taxpayers, hold harmless provisions

09:25 - aren't necessarily in my mind in any of our programs that hold

09:28 - harmless supplies to isn't really healthy, because it doesn't really allow you

09:32 - to adapt to where the growth is versus where the growth isn't.

09:35 - And so as long as we're working on that and focusing on that, I think we could see

09:40 - success in some of the schools concerns where they feel a need to bolster things.

09:45 - So I think I hear you and I

09:46 - don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think I hear you saying

09:48 - a commitment, though, to make sure that we've got facilities

09:51 - that work to to put the where they, where they're needed, where they matter 100%.

09:55 - I want to ask you before

09:56 - I let you go outside of budget, obviously as as a process

09:59 - chairman, you spend a lot of time focused on that area.

10:01 - But I know that you're passionate about education and other spaces as well,

10:04 - other policy priorities for you

10:05 - as you look ahead over the next year or two in, in public education.

10:08 - So one of the things, I know my team and some others in the Senate

10:12 - have really been focused on

10:13 - is this social media awareness and how we can partner with schools.

10:17 - You know, we established the first social media awareness and safety Day,

10:20 - in August of this past year.

10:23 - It was actually our entire week at the beginning of the school year.

10:25 - Most schools were starting were seeing way too many of our kids

10:29 - being exposed to things on the internet today that we never could fathom.

10:32 - And unfortunately, sadly, a lot of it results in situations

10:35 - where kids die sextortion, things like that.

10:39 - So, what we did is we created, in partnership

10:41 - with Lampeter-Strasburg High School, a forum, and had a panel of experts

10:46 - and actually victims families and really talking about the things that parents

10:50 - and teachers need to be aware of and what we're doing right now.

10:53 - Our communications focus

10:54 - is creating a template that I can hand off to any other state senator.

10:58 - We're going to hand it off to House members, the House folks, to just

11:01 - encourage people to have these forms and these discussions in your communities,

11:05 - because these are real things our kids are facing right now,

11:07 - and it's in our best interest to stay ahead of that curve.

11:10 - Good stuff. Senator, thank you so much.

11:12 - Thank you for having good luck in the budget.

11:13 - Thank you. Excellence isn't just a goal, it's a standard.

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12:14 - You're watching the Keystone Education report.

12:18 - And welcome back to the Keystone Education Report.

12:20 - We're continuing the conversation on the state budget and its impact on education.

12:25 - With two members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Representative Peter

12:28 - Swire represents the 134th legislative district in Lehigh County,

12:32 - and he serves as chair of the House Education and House Ethics Committees.

12:37 - Representative Brian Cutler represents the 100th legislative district

12:40 - in Lancaster County, and serves as the Republican chair of the House.

12:43 - Education Committee. Thank you both for being here.

12:45 - Thank you for having us.

12:46 - We, we just heard from Senator Martin, a chair over in the Senate.

12:50 - And I want to put the same question to both of you

12:52 - as as the budget negotiations continue.

12:55 - What is it looking like?

12:56 - And specifically what's it looking like for education this year?

12:59 - Well, I quit, looking into a crystal ball and trying to figure out

13:03 - what is going to happen with a budget negotiation.

13:06 - What I will say is, at least from the education funding perspective,

13:10 - we kind of know the direction that we need to go in.

13:13 - Our caucus is fully committed to the adequacy of funds

13:17 - so that we can continue to help

13:18 - elevating those school districts that are most at risk,

13:20 - and that we learned during the lawsuit need the most amount of assistance.

13:24 - I think all of us share a desire to have a little bit of an increase over

13:27 - the governor's proposed budget on special education,

13:29 - but I don't think the numbers are going to change all that dramatically,

13:32 - at least as far as they go in education from what

13:34 - the governor, proposed in his address back in February.

13:36 - I think when you look at the educational funding,

13:38 - it's important to kind of

13:39 - look at the trajectory we've been on for probably close to 10 or 12 years now.

13:44 - There's been continued investment.

13:45 - Obviously we want to see continued improvement, for that area as well.

13:49 - I know one of the areas that we worked on previously from a policy perspective,

13:54 - and I'm hoping to see continued investment is kind of

13:56 - in the career trades and some of the other opportunities

13:59 - for individuals who may not choose a path that goes straight to college.

14:04 - There's been good support of that in the budget previously,

14:06 - and I hope to see that continue. Let's talk about that for a minute.

14:09 - You're right.

14:09 - There has been more more dollars and more of an emphasis there.

14:12 - Why do you think that is and why is it so important?

14:15 - I know that you've been an outspoken advocate in that space.

14:18 - Well, obviously, that partially kind of reflects

14:20 - my own career path, where I went to trade school first

14:22 - and then eventually went to college and law school, much later in life.

14:26 - But, honestly, I think that when I was going through that

14:31 - journey myself, there was really a stigma for any kind of trade schools.

14:34 - And I'm I'm glad to see that that's kind of going away.

14:38 - And they're being talked about as, you know, good family

14:41 - sustaining and, you know, just solid pay jobs.

14:45 - I think that's important.

14:47 - I think that helps individuals look at that as a viable path.

14:51 - All too often, you know, students typically just choose

14:55 - whatever they're exposed to, because that's what's most familiar.

14:58 - You know, mom or dad does, you know, this kind of job or that kind of job.

15:02 - And, you know, you see that just kind of continue.

15:05 - And I think it's important that we expose our young folks to,

15:09 - the vast variety of possibilities that are out there,

15:12 - their career in the trades, and, you know, the idea of kind of what I'll call

15:15 - like a career pathway.

15:17 - And we're seeing that even in the,

15:18 - in the teaching world as well, like where we're looking to help individuals become,

15:22 - you know, class aides to eventually become full time teachers with a stipend

15:26 - to help offset that kind of training.

15:28 - Cost is really, in my opinion, the same kind of mindset

15:31 - that really lends itself to people trying out a trade.

15:34 - Or a career before they ultimately decide to further in that particular field.

15:40 - All too often, I think particularly people in my generation,

15:44 - they would go to college.

15:46 - And when you didn't student teach until the end and you suddenly find out

15:50 - you don't like teaching.

15:51 - That's a challenge,

15:52 - because now you've got all this debt and you've got to make a decision.

15:55 - What do you do?

15:56 - You can't really afford to go back to school.

15:58 - Do you teach even though you might not enjoy it as much?

16:01 - And it just creates,

16:02 - challenges that those kinds of pathways actually help you avoid?

16:06 - I know you've been a supporter as well of of career and technical center.

16:09 - What what can we do through public policy changes?

16:13 - Maybe to encourage more folks to take a look at it?

16:14 - Because I think, you know, you were saying

16:16 - people don't realize it's there are great opportunities out there,

16:19 - but how do we get more people to pay attention?

16:21 - They're fantastic jobs.

16:22 - For a lot of students, it is the type of education that they want.

16:25 - They want the hands on learning.

16:27 - They want to be able to marry, and pair their English programs

16:30 - and their social studies programs with real life experience.

16:33 - Our career and tech center in the Lehigh Valley has everything

16:36 - from diesel, technician and auto body

16:39 - to child care to criminal justice and literally everything in between.

16:43 - So they have a a wide variety of options.

16:45 - There are a couple of challenges with career in tech education.

16:48 - I share, Chair Cutler's support for it.

16:52 - It's, there's been a remarkable change in the overall perspective

16:56 - of career in tech ed and the 14 years that I've been a legislator.

17:00 - Now, I'm sorry I added a year to 12 years,

17:03 - that I've been a legislator now was not a math major anyway.

17:07 - But the change in perspective around has been great.

17:10 - The challenges that we have around it is, number one,

17:13 - we don't have enough access for so many of our students.

17:16 - There are waitlists in every career in tech school.

17:19 - Not necessarily in every one of the disciplines,

17:22 - but in many of the disciplines.

17:23 - Good luck finding space in a welding program.

17:26 - Good luck

17:26 - finding space in some of the automotive, electrical work, etc., etc., etc.

17:30 - these really popular programs are oversubscribed

17:34 - and we need to find ways to reduce that logjam for

17:37 - for the students that are looking to do, those things for many of our schools.

17:41 - You know, on the way here,

17:42 - we passed the Perry County and Cumberland County Career and Tech Center.

17:45 - I imagine for a lot of students in Perry County that is a hike for them to go to.

17:49 - There are transportation issues.

17:51 - There are, there's educator issues.

17:54 - We are having a hard time.

17:55 - Brian alluded to the teacher shortage earlier.

17:58 - That's really acute in a lot of our training and tech schools.

18:01 - So we have, structural problems with it.

18:03 - There are two ways to look at this.

18:05 - And I think the answer is yes.

18:07 - And I think we need to be looking at both of these issues first.

18:10 - There are immediate things that we could look at in this budget.

18:13 - We can continue to invest in things like the facilities, like the equipment fund.

18:18 - Those are short term things that we could do now to ease the burden

18:21 - and make it a little bit more accessible for our students long term.

18:24 - We need to take a real deep dive in career in tech.

18:26 - Ed, we need to understand the structure everywhere.

18:29 - We need to understand all of the barriers.

18:31 - We just, received a report from the legislative budget and finance Commission

18:35 - that outlined some of the barriers that we're seeing in career and tech ed,

18:39 - and that's going to take more work.

18:40 - That's more than something that we're going to be able

18:42 - to solve at one budget, table.

18:43 - But like Brian said, there's widespread agreement,

18:45 - House and Senate Democrats and Republicans on the need to do both.

18:49 - Let's do an immediate investment to try to make it a little bit better now

18:52 - and take a long term and holistic look at our current tech ed,

18:54 - and that obviously drives economic changes and everything else.

18:57 - If we can get more, as you said, you know, more electricians into the field, more,

19:01 - and it's a really great thing and it really reflects,

19:03 - Nathan, what's happening

19:05 - in our very different areas of the commonwealth, Pennsylvania.

19:07 - I mean, Brian and I live, you know, an hour away, easy car ride down to 22.

19:11 - But our communities couldn't be much more different.

19:13 - I mean, we're both growing areas

19:14 - of the Commonwealth, but, our economies are different.

19:17 - The industries that we have are different.

19:19 - Our proximity to major metropolitan areas.

19:22 - You're closer to Baltimore. I'm closer to Philly in New York.

19:24 - And so those should be reflected in our education systems.

19:28 - And nowhere is it easier to make those changes

19:30 - that are so specific to your community than in our career tech schools.

19:33 - Let me ask you about safety and security.

19:35 - While we're talking about I think we've kind of touched on facility,

19:37 - and I want to talk more about that.

19:38 - And but, you know, safety, security broadly and it's certainly a topic

19:42 - that I don't know if you can talk about education

19:44 - and not talk about the safety and security of our students, our teachers.

19:47 - Yeah. What's what's on the horizon there.

19:49 - Where do you think we go?

19:50 - You know, I have a high school and daughter and, it is something

19:53 - that we talk about on a regular basis.

19:55 - We've had all of them mercifully, have been, false.

19:59 - But we've had bomb threats this year.

20:01 - I live in an urban core.

20:02 - There are threats of violence around our campuses.

20:06 - I don't want to say regularly, but, enough times that it's, deeply

20:09 - unsettling.

20:10 - We've had a number of, of schools that have experienced swatting reports.

20:14 - And then, of course, the most horrific things and that we've seen far too often,

20:17 - across the United States in school shootings, in those sorts of things.

20:20 - It is something that keeps us up at, at all hours.

20:23 - There's not a legislator who isn't worried about it.

20:25 - We are going to continue to fund the school safety.

20:28 - Fund out of PCD and try to expand it to our abilities

20:33 - to look at not just the physical infrastructure and security

20:36 - that we have, but also, look at mental health supports

20:40 - and those sorts of things to try to see problems on the outset,

20:44 - before they before they become, something that's extremely dangerous.

20:48 - We've also taken a look at things like guidance counselors.

20:50 - We've we've taken a look at things like, social workers in our schools.

20:55 - We are working on legislation right now to open up a pipeline for more adults

20:59 - to get into those fields, to make it easier for schools to hire

21:02 - guidance counselors, school social workers, school psychologists,

21:05 - and those sorts of things.

21:06 - There's not going to be one single thing that's going to guarantee safety,

21:10 - but we can take a number of steps that are going to ease concerns of parents

21:13 - and make our communities safer. I'll put the question to you.

21:14 - Having been a legislator

21:15 - for many years, a long list of things, and I saw you nodding along.

21:19 - I think there's agreement probably on both sides of the aisle, but there is how do

21:23 - how do you prioritize that?

21:24 - Because clearly, you know, many important things.

21:27 - Never enough money to to fully cover everything.

21:30 - How do you, as a legislator figure out, you know, where can you drive the dollars

21:33 - in this particular budget cycle to maybe make the maximum impact, knowing

21:37 - you can't do it all?

21:38 - Yeah, that's always a question that you wrestle with every budget cycle.

21:41 - And that's been that way every time.

21:43 - I think that there's a couple ways to approach it.

21:45 - One is, you know, we like to put money

21:49 - in neat little buckets, like we said, okay, this is the basic education funding.

21:52 - This is special ed funding.

21:53 - This is school safety funding.

21:55 - And that's all great.

21:57 - But it may not, to the point, may not be specifically

22:01 - what that particular school needs in that particular time.

22:05 - Some schools are very good with upgrading their buildings

22:07 - and staying on a regular, you know, maintenance and upgrade process.

22:11 - Some aren't, so they obviously need more infrastructure funding.

22:15 - Some are very good at keeping money in the programs.

22:18 - But the truth is, special ed costs are driving.

22:20 - What what is happening at the local level

22:22 - for those particular schools because of the formulas that we use.

22:26 - I talked a little bit

22:27 - about how some of those formulas, truthfully, are very outdated.

22:31 - So I always try to look at it as a holistic number.

22:34 - Like all of this money is going in the education.

22:37 - And the goal always was, to the chairman's point.

22:40 - And let's use a school safety funding specifically.

22:43 - You know, there's only so many physical upgrades that you can probably do.

22:49 - And then the question becomes, how do you address any mental health issues?

22:52 - How do you address counseling issues?

22:54 - One of the issues

22:55 - that we've been talking about this cycle is cell phones and social media.

22:58 - And, you know, cyber bullying.

23:00 - And I like, you know, can you expand what that money might qualify for?

23:05 - And I think

23:06 - by giving the local school districts as much flexibility with those funds

23:11 - is ultimately the best approach, because that we don't have to

23:14 - say, well, my school needs this and your school needs this.

23:17 - And then it's that's a zero win game because you're fighting over the same

23:22 - tug of war.

23:23 - Whereas if you can say, hey, we're gonna put money in this bucket

23:25 - and then you school can pick what, what you think is the best funds.

23:30 - I've always thought that was a better approach.

23:33 - We got a couple of minutes left.

23:34 - Mandate reform.

23:35 - Mandate reform is always top issue.

23:37 - There's nothing more frustrating than the government

23:39 - telling you that you have to do something, but then not funding it.

23:42 - We see it all the time coming down from the federal government.

23:44 - It's a challenge.

23:46 - I think that we've done a good job.

23:48 - And I want to commend Pete, particularly in the,

23:51 - in the world of kind of building that teacher pipeline

23:54 - and some of the certification requirements and some of those things,

23:58 - they directly impact what the costs are, you know, for education

24:02 - and getting teachers in the classroom.

24:03 - And, it's been a joy working with him on those particular issues.

24:07 - I think that some of the more specific ones, we just passed some bills

24:11 - the last committee meeting where they got rid

24:12 - of some useless reports that, I think we need to keep looking at that.

24:16 - The truth is, government is horrible at keeping up with technology and advances.

24:21 - When you look at our election laws, I know it's not particularly your wheelhouse.

24:25 - The truth is, we still require polling places to have lanterns.

24:28 - In their polling places.

24:29 - And that was dates back to the 1800s.

24:31 - And it just never was updated until recently.

24:34 - And that's silly. I think we would all agree on that.

24:36 - But the truth is, there's a lot of reports

24:38 - and things that I think we asked the school districts to do that

24:40 - are no longer necessary, and they could better use their time,

24:44 - mandate, speed.

24:46 - Some of them are great.

24:47 - You may disagree. Some of them are necessary.

24:49 - I mean, we do spend an awful lot of money out of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

24:53 - and supporting our schools.

24:54 - That doesn't mean everything we do is right.

24:56 - And that doesn't, to Brian's point.

24:57 - Doesn't mean that, think times shouldn't be changing.

25:00 - We've tried our very best, to be mindful of them.

25:04 - And when we are, making changes, I mean, we, we

25:08 - try very hard to make sure everybody has a voice at the table,

25:10 - and we're able to try to get as much input as possible.

25:13 - Brian had a really interesting point there, though,

25:16 - that I don't want to deviate from.

25:17 - We talked about, upgrading and updating everything from technology

25:21 - and those sorts of things.

25:22 - One of the areas of bipartisan support that we have very early on

25:25 - in this legislative session and unfortunately hasn't become law,

25:29 - but passed out of the House with wide bipartisan support, was, it was upgrading

25:32 - and understanding our true transportation costs across the Commonwealth.

25:36 - Pennsylvania.

25:37 - When you talk about changing formulas, they're all over the place.

25:40 - We have them in basic ed. We have some special ed, we have them advocacy.

25:43 - We also have them in transportation.

25:44 - And so we are really very interested in getting more data.

25:49 - You know, our our bus drivers still have to report their mileage

25:52 - on, using paper and pencil, instead of GPS.

25:55 - It's not quite as dumb as in the polling place, but it's it's pretty close.

25:59 - It's in the same vein.

26:00 - And so so we are very interested in working with our friends

26:03 - in the school boards, working with our friends

26:04 - in school leadership to try to find areas where we could ease those burdens.

26:08 - At times it's going to happen.

26:09 - I mean, you know, when

26:10 - we were looking at the amount of money that we're investing in public

26:13 - education, we have certain goals and certain standards.

26:17 - Brian and I share a desire to make sure that public education

26:21 - isn't just talked about, know

26:22 - how much money we're investing in it, but what our student outcomes.

26:25 - And if there's an opportunity for us to direct dollars

26:29 - in a particular manner that,

26:30 - we think is going to have a positive student outcomes,

26:33 - we're going to continue to do it, but we'll always,

26:35 - see how we can ease as burdens and give more flexibility

26:38 - to our local school district. We've got a couple of seconds left.

26:41 - We talk a lot, and we hear a lot of people

26:42 - talk about the need for more civility in politics and across the aisle.

26:46 - You guys have worked well together over the last several years.

26:49 - I think for many years.

26:50 - I'll put you on the spot.

26:51 - What's the secret to to you could share with others

26:54 - on how to find a way to work civilly, even when you're politically.

26:58 - Maybe in, in different parties across the aisle, have different interests.

27:02 - How does it work for you? I'm going to jump the line here.

27:04 - That was funny.

27:06 - But, but but honestly, I want to commend Brian.

27:09 - Brian was our speaker.

27:10 - And when Brian was speaker, he set a tone and a standard for us

27:14 - in the General Assembly.

27:15 - You know, there are heated moments.

27:17 - You know, these things happen, but you really set a standard from day one.

27:21 - I think you're a whip when when I, when I joined the legislature

27:24 - and, I learned a lot from watching Brian as our speaker.

27:27 - Thank you very much. It's not an easy job.

27:30 - And, you know, I've talked to both

27:32 - speaker before and after me, and it's it's something that you share.

27:37 - But the

27:38 - reality is, is I was encouraging new members to do this.

27:41 - Just get to know the other person.

27:42 - Too often in politics, it's easier to, you know, mash on the keyboards

27:46 - or say something nasty online.

27:48 - But when you go to dinner with each other, you discuss issues.

27:53 - Chances are you're going to find that

27:55 - you have a lot more in common than you realize.

27:57 - You know, Pete alluded to the differences geographically in terms of our districts,

28:02 - but the end of the day, we both care about kids

28:04 - and we both care about the outcome we want.

28:05 - You know, I'm somebody who had the benefit of a great public education,

28:09 - but I also recognize that not every public school is like

28:13 - the one that I went to or my kids went to, and it's just different challenges.

28:16 - And, but I think when you find that commonality

28:20 - and you're able to work on that one particular thing,

28:22 - the truth is, is, you will find other things to work on.

28:26 - And I think that's the biggest secret.

28:27 - And unfortunately, post-Covid in particular, that kind of went away.

28:31 - We used to do bipartisan orientation, and we had 2 or 3 classes

28:36 - of, of incoming legislators that didn't have that same experience.

28:41 - And then I think it made it a little bit easy to be a little less civil sometimes.

28:45 - So, I think as we return to normalcy here over the last couple classes,

28:49 - I think you're going to see that return.

28:50 - That's certainly my hope.

28:52 - And, you know, we try to do it by leading by example.

28:54 - Because, look, we don't always vote the same,

28:56 - but we always have good discussions many times before.

28:59 - And I'll say, hey, you know, Mr.

29:01 - Chairman is where I'm going to be at.

29:02 - This is what I'm gonna say.

29:03 - And, you know, generally, we have a good understanding

29:07 - of why we each where we are.

29:09 - And, the votes fall where they do are good.

29:12 - Gentlemen, thank you both for being here. Thank you. Sir.

29:14 - Thanks for tuning in to the Keystone education report.

29:16 - Today, we examine the state budget and its impact on education across Pennsylvania.

29:21 - These discussions highlight the key priorities and challenges facing schools

29:25 - as the budget process moves forward, and remains a significant topic

29:29 - for districts, educators and students from all across the Commonwealth.

29:33 - Join us next time as we continue to explore the issues shaping

29:35 - public education across Pennsylvania.

30:05 - This program has been paid

30:07 - for by the sponsor and does not reflect the views of PCN.