Why Pennsylvania Needs Education Reform

Education is one of the most important responsibilities of state government.

Pennsylvania schools should give every child a safe place to learn, a strong academic foundation, useful skills, honest standards, and a real path into adulthood.

Families expect schools to teach reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, reasoning, financial literacy, and the practical skills students need for life. Parents expect to know what is happening with their children. Teachers expect safe classrooms, clear discipline standards, adequate support, and the authority to teach. Students deserve honest grades, meaningful intervention when they struggle, and real opportunities after graduation. Taxpayers deserve to know where the money goes and whether it is producing results.

Too many students are being moved through the system without mastering basic skills. Too many teachers are expected to manage chronic disruption without adequate support. Too many parents struggle to get clear information about major decisions involving their children. Graduation rates, credit recovery, discipline statistics, and other numbers mean little if they do not honestly reflect what is happening inside our schools.

Pennsylvania also needs to stop treating a four-year college degree as the only successful outcome. College, community college, skilled trades, apprenticeships, industry credentials, military service, public service, entrepreneurship, and direct entry into the workforce are all legitimate paths.

Pennsylvania does not need another education slogan.

It needs an education system that teaches students, protects families, strengthens teachers, respects taxpayers, and prepares young people for real life.

This reform is built around one clear standard:

Teach the basics. Restore order. Protect parents. Strengthen teachers. Prepare students for life. Track the money. Hold the system accountable.

WHAT THIS PLAN WILL DO

This reform will:

• Establish enforceable statewide academic and graduation standards while preserving reasonable local flexibility in curriculum, instruction, programming, and community priorities.

• Strengthen reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, government, reasoning, financial literacy, digital responsibility, and practical life preparation.

• Strengthen early literacy and mathematics foundations and require meaningful intervention when students fall behind.

• Limit social promotion, prohibit grade floors that hide failure, strengthen remediation and credit recovery, and protect diploma integrity.

• Require students to receive practical preparation for adulthood, including civics, financial literacy, civic responsibility, and life skills.

• Respect college, community college, skilled trades, apprenticeships, industry credentials, military service, public service, entrepreneurship, and direct employment as legitimate pathways.

• Restructure school governance through elected county education boards, local district councils, stronger shared services, and clearer superintendent accountability.

• Coordinate education funding directly with Pennsylvania Property Tax Reform so education changes do not rebuild property-tax burdens through uncontrolled spending, hidden mandates, or backdoor local costs.

• Restore classroom order, strengthen school safety, protect victims, address bullying and violence, and give teachers meaningful authority to deal with chronic disruption.

• Establish stronger parent rights involving records, curriculum information, major decisions, student safety, accommodations, complaints, appeals, and school transparency.

• Establish clear rules for preferred names, pronouns, gender identity-related accommodations, and parental notice and consent.

• Protect student privacy by separating multi-user bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing areas by biological sex identified at birth while permitting appropriate private accommodations.

• Restrict student cellphone use during the school day, reduce excessive screen dependence, strengthen student-data privacy, and ensure technology supports rather than replaces teaching.

• Strengthen special education, disability services, gifted education, academic intervention, and student-support systems.

• Expand CTE, skilled trades, apprenticeships, employer partnerships, work-based learning, and workforce preparation.

• Provide meaningful school choice while requiring accountability for public money and protecting students from fraud, unsafe providers, and abandonment of required services.

• Establish fair academic, attendance, conduct, transfer, safety, and eligibility standards for athletics and extracurricular activities.

• Improve school facilities, transportation, food services, health services, emergency communication, and student welfare.

• Strengthen community colleges, technical education, adult education, workforce retraining, apprenticeships, and other postsecondary pathways.

• Recognize the Pennsylvania Civilian Ranger Corps as a voluntary, paid, civilian Ready-for-Life pathway.

• Require public dashboards, independent audits, complaint procedures, whistleblower protections, procurement controls, anti-nepotism rules, corrective action, and meaningful enforcement.

1. RESTORE THE CORE MISSION OF EDUCATION

The purpose of school is not to protect bureaucracy.

The purpose of school is to educate students and prepare them for life.

Every Pennsylvania student deserves a meaningful opportunity to receive:

• a safe, clean, functional school
• qualified teachers and support personnel
• grade-appropriate academic instruction
• appropriate textbooks, materials, technology, and learning resources
• special-education and disability services based on law and individual need
• intervention and remediation when falling behind
• career, technical, college, military, public-service, entrepreneurial, and workforce preparation
• honest grading, assessment, promotion, and graduation standards
• protection from chronic violence, bullying, harassment, intimidation, and disruption
• meaningful parental access to records, curriculum information, policies, and major decisions

Schools serving students with greater needs should receive appropriate support. Greater need may justify additional resources, staffing, services, or different instructional strategies.

It should not justify permanently lowered expectations, dishonest reporting, or abandoning students.

Every student should leave school with real skills, not simply a diploma.

2. REFORM SCHOOL GOVERNANCE AND SUPERINTENDENT ACCOUNTABILITY

Pennsylvania's education system divides responsibility among hundreds of school districts, boards, Intermediate Units, administrators, state agencies, contractors, and other entities.

When responsibility is scattered everywhere, accountability can disappear.

This reform establishes a clearer structure built around the Commonwealth, elected county education boards, local district councils, district superintendents, shared-service providers, and other education providers where public responsibilities apply.

Local school districts would remain operationally distinct and retain their community identity.

Local district councils would represent their communities, hear parents, review performance, help establish local priorities, and participate in budget development.

County education boards would provide equal district representation and stronger countywide fiscal oversight, budgeting, shared services, transparency, and accountability.

Superintendents would operate under renewable one-year performance contracts and would be evaluated on academics, finances, safety, staffing, special education, parent communication, transparency, and implementation of required reforms.

The goal is not centralized control over every classroom.

The goal is clear responsibility.

Authority and accountability must go together.

3. COORDINATE EDUCATION FUNDING WITH PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

Education reform cannot be separated from property-tax reform.

Pennsylvania needs strong schools without continually increasing taxes on homes, farms, and businesses people already own.

Education funding would be established through statewide law and coordinated directly with Pennsylvania Property Tax Reform.

School spending would be subject to stronger:

• budget controls
• reserve rules
• debt oversight
• procurement standards
• public reporting
• independent audits
• anti-diversion protections
• accountability for administrative spending
• safeguards against unfunded mandates
• protections against backdoor property-tax rebuilding

Local officials should not be able to respond to waste, administrative growth, poor planning, or overspending by automatically sending taxpayers a larger property-tax bill.

The state should not reduce property taxes with one hand and rebuild the same burden through hidden mandates or uncontrolled local costs with the other.

4. RESTORE STRONG ACADEMIC STANDARDS

Reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, and reasoning must remain the academic foundation of Pennsylvania education.

Pennsylvania would establish enforceable statewide minimum academic standards while preserving reasonable local flexibility over curriculum, teaching methods, scheduling, programming, and community priorities.

Students would receive stronger preparation in:

• reading and literacy
• writing and communication
• mathematics
• science
• American and Pennsylvania history
• civics and government
• reasoning
• financial literacy
• digital responsibility
• practical life skills
• career readiness

Career programs, technology, extracurricular activities, and student-support programs can strengthen education.

They cannot substitute for failure to teach the basics.

Schools should be measured not merely by how many students receive diplomas, but by whether those students can read, write, calculate, reason, communicate, understand their government and history, and move successfully into adult life.

5. PROTECT DIPLOMA INTEGRITY

A Pennsylvania diploma should mean something.

Schools should not be permitted to manufacture successful statistics through inflated grades, manipulated graduation data, weak credit recovery, click-through coursework, artificial transfers, or other shortcuts.

Assessment should identify where students are succeeding and where they need help.

Low results should trigger intervention, remediation, curriculum review, teacher support, parent notification, leadership review, and corrective action where necessary.

Testing should not be the sole or primary basis for school funding, and no student should lose a diploma solely because of one standardized examination score.

Students who need help should receive real help.

They should not simply be moved along to protect institutional statistics.

6. LIMIT SOCIAL PROMOTION AND REQUIRE REAL INTERVENTION

Students should not be promoted year after year while falling further behind.

Pennsylvania would establish clear statewide standards for promotion, retention, remediation, academic intervention, credit recovery, and parent notification.

Retention should not be automatic.

Neither should promotion.

Schools must identify problems early enough to do something about them.

Families should receive timely notice when a student is at risk of course failure, retention, loss of credit, or failure to graduate.

Intervention may include tutoring, additional instruction, academic recovery, summer support, structured credit recovery, conditional promotion, or other appropriate assistance.

The goal is not to punish struggling students.

The goal is to stop pretending they are succeeding when they are not.

7. STRENGTHEN GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS AND LIFE READINESS

Education must prepare students for adulthood, not merely move them toward graduation.

Before graduation, students should receive meaningful instruction in:

• state and federal civics
• civic responsibility
• personal budgeting
• banking
• credit and debt
• interest and loans
• taxes and payroll deductions
• insurance
• housing and rental agreements
• employment applications and workplace expectations
• consumer rights and responsibilities
• digital safety, scams, fraud, and identity protection
• basic first aid and emergency response
• nutrition and household responsibilities
• voting and jury service
• basic contracts and legal obligations

Students would complete required instruction in civics, financial literacy, civic responsibility, and a modernized Life Skills and Household Readiness course.

Competency could be demonstrated through appropriate coursework, projects, portfolios, practical assessments, simulations, work-based learning, and other approved methods.

Class rank, valedictorian, and salutatorian would be restored and protected.

Graduation should tell students, families, employers, colleges, and communities that the diploma represents real preparation.

8. RESTORE SCHOOL SAFETY AND CLASSROOM ORDER

Students cannot learn in chaos.

Teachers cannot teach when classrooms are controlled by chronic disruption, violence, threats, or intimidation.

Pennsylvania would establish stronger and more consistent standards involving:

• violence
• threats
• bullying
• cyberbullying
• harassment
• weapons
• drugs
• alcohol
• cigarettes and vaping
• sexual misconduct
• repeated classroom disruption
• bus misconduct
• emergency response
• school safety reporting

Victims should be protected.

Parents should receive appropriate notice.

Teachers should have meaningful authority to maintain classroom order and remove seriously disruptive students through established procedures.

Schools should not manipulate discipline data or hide serious incidents to protect statistics or reputation.

Classroom cameras, emergency communication systems, phones in classrooms and public hallways, and clearly defined school-police authority would strengthen accountability and emergency response.

Students and teachers should not be required to tolerate chronic violence, bullying, threats, or disruption as a normal part of public education.

9. ESTABLISH A PARENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS IN EDUCATION

Parents are not visitors to their child's education.

This reform establishes enforceable parent rights involving:

• access to accurate student records
• timely notice of serious academic problems
• notice of major discipline and safety issues
• curriculum information and major instructional materials
• participation in intervention planning
• special-education and disability decisions
• health and counseling matters where parental involvement is legally appropriate
• sensitive surveys and information collection
• school choice and transfer information
• complaint and appeal procedures
• participation in public meetings
• protection from retaliation

Schools must communicate clearly and make reasonable efforts to involve parents in major decisions affecting their children.

Parental rights must operate consistently with student safety, lawful privacy protections, court orders, mandatory child-protection obligations, constitutional requirements, and the rights of other students.

Parents should not have to fight the education system simply to know what is happening with their child.

10. ESTABLISH CLEAR PREFERRED-NAME, PRONOUN, AND STUDENT-IDENTITY RULES

Schools should not make major identity-related decisions involving a minor behind a parent's back.

Parent notice and consent would be required before a school formally, routinely, or officially uses a preferred name, pronoun, gender-identity designation, or related accommodation that differs from the student's official school records or biological sex identified at birth, subject to narrow lawful safety exceptions.

Ordinary nicknames and common name variations are not the issue.

Schools would not maintain shadow records, secret preferred-name lists, undisclosed pronoun directives, hidden identity files, or informal practices designed to keep parents unaware.

The purpose is straightforward:

Parents should know when a school is making a significant identity-related accommodation involving their minor child.

11. PROTECT STUDENT PRIVACY IN BATHROOMS, LOCKER ROOMS, SHOWERS, AND CHANGING AREAS

Students have legitimate privacy interests in intimate spaces.

Multi-user bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing areas would be separated by biological sex identified at birth.

Students would use the multi-user facility corresponding with their biological sex identified at birth.

Schools may provide private, single-user, or other alternative accommodations for legitimate privacy, safety, disability, medical, or hardship needs.

Those accommodations should be practical and respectful.

They should not override the privacy rights of other students or authorize use of the opposite-sex multi-user facility.

12. STRENGTHEN SPECIAL EDUCATION, DISABILITY SERVICES, GIFTED EDUCATION, AND STUDENT SUPPORT

Students should receive services based on their actual needs, not administrative convenience.

Pennsylvania would strengthen:

• special-education accountability
• IEP and Section 504 integrity
• disability accommodations
• gifted education
• intervention services
• behavioral supports
• parent participation
• service documentation
• staffing and caseload transparency
• complaint and appeal rights
• transition planning

Inclusion can be appropriate for many students.

It should not become an inflexible rule when a separate classroom, specialized program, or different educational setting better serves the student's educational, behavioral, safety, or disability needs.

The standard should be the student's legitimate educational needs and applicable law.

Schools should not hide service failures, manipulate documentation, or use special education as either a dumping ground or an excuse to permanently lower expectations.

13. STRENGTHEN TEACHERS AND RESTORE CLASSROOM AUTHORITY

Good schools require good teachers.

This reform is designed to strengthen teachers who do their jobs well while holding administrators, employees, and other actors accountable when they do not.

Pennsylvania would improve:

• teacher recruitment
• shortage-area staffing
• certification pathways
• substitute coverage
• classroom support
• staffing transparency
• teacher safety
• protection from retaliation
• protection from knowingly false or malicious complaints
• merit, shortage-area, and performance-based compensation structures
• professional accountability
• leadership accountability

Teachers should have meaningful authority to address chronic disruption and seek removal of students whose behavior makes legitimate instruction impossible, subject to appropriate procedures and student protections.

Teachers should not be pressured to inflate grades, hide discipline problems, manipulate statistics, or pass students who have not learned the material.

Good teachers should be supported.

Bad actors should not be protected.

Weak administrators should not be able to hide their own failures behind classroom teachers.

14. LIMIT CELLPHONES, SCREEN DEPENDENCE, AND DIGITAL ABUSE

Technology should support education.

It should not replace education.

Student cellphone use would be restricted during the school day, with appropriate provisions for emergencies, disability needs, medical requirements, and other legitimate exceptions.

K-6 students would not use Chromebooks or similar devices as a routine daily instructional platform.

Grades 7-9 could use them on a limited and structured basis.

Grades 10-12 could use devices more extensively while remaining subject to instructional limits and teacher supervision.

Schools would protect handwriting, printed materials, reading, direct instruction, classroom discussion, problem-solving, and hands-on learning.

Pennsylvania would also strengthen:

• student-data privacy
• digital-platform oversight
• software and subscription review
• cybersecurity
• AI-use standards
• controls on unnecessary screen time
• accountability for education technology purchases

A Chromebook is a tool.

It is not a teacher.

15. EXPAND CTE, SKILLED TRADES, APPRENTICESHIPS, AND WORKFORCE READINESS

Pennsylvania needs to stop treating skilled trades as a fallback.

Students should receive meaningful exposure to:

• universities
• community colleges
• career and technical education
• skilled trades
• apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships
• industry certifications
• military service
• public-safety careers
• public service
• agriculture
• manufacturing
• construction
• energy
• healthcare
• technology
• entrepreneurship
• direct workforce entry

Where one district cannot provide every opportunity itself, students could gain access through countywide programs, career and technical centers, neighboring districts, community colleges, employers, trade organizations, labor partnerships, nonprofits, and other approved providers.

College is a legitimate path.

It is not the only legitimate path.

Students pursuing trades, technical education, military service, public service, entrepreneurship, or direct employment would still receive strong academic preparation.

Every pathway should lead somewhere.

16. STRENGTHEN SCHOOL CHOICE WHILE REQUIRING ACCOUNTABILITY

No system owns a child.

Families should have meaningful options when an assigned school is persistently failing, unsafe, unable to provide required services, or simply wrong for a student's legitimate educational needs.

Public schools remain a central part of Pennsylvania's education system.

School choice does not eliminate their responsibility to serve students.

Charter schools, cyber charters, district cyber programs, private providers, alternative programs, and other institutions receiving public money would accept accountability proportionate to the public support they receive.

That may include:

• financial audits
• academic reporting
• attendance reporting
• safety requirements
• student-data protection
• background checks
• applicable special-education obligations
• performance disclosure
• conflict-of-interest protections
• anti-fraud requirements

Private schools that accept no public funding would not automatically be regulated as public schools merely because school choice exists.

Public funding requires public accountability.

17. CREATE FAIR ATHLETICS AND EXTRACURRICULAR STANDARDS

Athletics and extracurricular activities are valuable parts of education.

They teach discipline, teamwork, leadership, confidence, responsibility, and school pride.

Participation, however, is a privilege tied to reasonable academic, attendance, conduct, safety, and eligibility standards.

Pennsylvania would establish clearer statewide rules governing:

• academic eligibility
• attendance
• failing core courses
• intervention and probation
• student conduct
• transfers
• recruiting
• athletic shopping
• coaching accountability
• booster involvement
• student safety
• participation across school-choice settings

The academic eligibility standard would include a 2.0 GPA, with intervention and probation rules where appropriate, and students would not remain automatically eligible while failing core academic courses.

School-sponsored athletics and extracurricular activities would not charge pay-to-play participation fees.

Students attending CTE programs, cyber schools, charter schools, homeschool programs, or other approved educational settings should have fair participation rules without creating recruiting loopholes or competitive manipulation.

18. FIX SCHOOL FACILITIES, TRANSPORTATION, FOOD SERVICES, AND STUDENT WELFARE

Students should not be expected to learn in buildings that are dangerously hot, freezing, dirty, inaccessible, poorly ventilated, or chronically neglected.

Pennsylvania would require stronger facility assessment and public reporting involving:

• structural condition
• heating
• air conditioning and cooling
• ventilation and air quality
• drinking water
• bathrooms
• accessibility
• playgrounds
• athletic facilities
• laboratories
• CTE facilities
• emergency systems
• deferred maintenance

Schools would install, upgrade, or provide adequate cooling over a responsible phased timeline.

School transportation would also face stronger safety requirements.

That includes appropriate use of:

• GPS tracking
• speed monitoring
• front and rear cameras
• interior cameras
• stop-arm enforcement
• driver and vehicle accountability
• parent communication
• incident review

Food-service policy should provide practical meals without meal shaming.

Schools also need adequate health-office coverage, student-welfare protections, mental-health crisis response, and appropriate privacy.

Calendar modernization, including balanced-calendar or year-round models, may be studied.

It should not be imposed statewide without evidence, public review, and buildings capable of safely operating during hotter months.

19. ADDRESS ATTENDANCE, TRUANCY, WEATHER CLOSURES, AND LOST INSTRUCTION

A scheduled school day means little if meaningful instruction does not occur.

Pennsylvania would establish clearer standards for:

• attendance
• truancy intervention
• weather closures
• delays
• Flexible Instruction Days
• makeup instruction
• instructional continuity
• extreme-temperature decisions
• transportation conditions
• parent notice

Attendance problems should be addressed by identifying the cause.

That may include transportation problems, illness, disability, homelessness, bullying, violence, family instability, school avoidance, academic failure, or other legitimate circumstances.

Pennsylvania should not rely on routine monetary fines against struggling families as the primary answer to truancy.

The response should emphasize early intervention, family coordination, transportation solutions, counseling where appropriate, academic recovery, and documented attendance plans.

Willful refusal and genuine inability are not the same thing.

School attendance policy should recognize the difference.

20. STRENGTHEN FAMILY, COMMUNITY, MENTORSHIP, AND VOLUNTEER INVOLVEMENT

Schools do not operate separately from their communities.

Pennsylvania would establish an approved statewide framework that makes it easier for qualified adults and community organizations to contribute while maintaining appropriate background checks, safety rules, supervision, and boundaries.

Schools could expand partnerships involving:

• parents
• mentors
• local businesses
• skilled tradespeople
• veterans
• civic organizations
• youth organizations
• colleges
• employers
• community groups
• other qualified volunteers

Programs such as Dads in Schools and other approved mentorship or volunteer efforts can give schools additional responsible adult presence and stronger community connections.

The goal is not to replace teachers or professional staff.

It is to reconnect schools with the communities they serve.

21. STRENGTHEN HIGHER EDUCATION, COMMUNITY COLLEGES, AND ADULT RETRAINING

Education does not end at high school graduation.

Pennsylvania needs affordable and useful pathways for adults who need to train, retrain, change careers, earn credentials, or return to education.

This reform strengthens:

• community colleges
• trade and technical schools
• adult education
• GED and literacy pathways
• workforce retraining
• apprenticeships
• earn-while-you-learn programs
• dual enrollment
• transfer pathways
• credit for prior learning
• industry credentials
• healthcare workforce training
• teacher pipelines
• public-safety workforce training
• energy and infrastructure workforce training
• entrepreneurship and small-business education

Institutions receiving state support would provide greater transparency involving:

• tuition and total cost
• student debt
• completion
• transfer outcomes
• employment outcomes
• wages
• licensure pass rates
• administrative spending
• program performance
• value to students and taxpayers

Students should not be pushed deeply into debt for credentials that provide little realistic value.

The standard should be affordable education, honest costs, clear outcomes, useful skills, and less unnecessary debt.

22. RECOGNIZE THE PENNSYLVANIA CIVILIAN RANGER CORPS AS A VOLUNTARY PATHWAY

Pennsylvania should stop graduating young adults into uncertainty without a next step.

The Pennsylvania Civilian Ranger Corps would provide a voluntary, paid, civilian, nonpartisan public-service and workforce pathway for eligible participants.

It would provide opportunities for:

• structure and discipline
• public-service experience
• work experience
• practical skills
• certifications
• leadership development
• emergency readiness
• career exposure
• education and workforce advancement

It would not be mandatory service.

It would not be military service.

It would not be law enforcement unless a participant separately satisfies existing law-enforcement requirements.

It would not be an armed political force, protest-control organization, patronage operation, or replacement workforce for police, firefighters, EMS, the National Guard, teachers, public works employees, or other trained professionals.

Participants could earn approved education or technical credit, workforce credentials, and education benefits through documented service and approved training.

The education reform recognizes the Corps as a legitimate Ready-for-Life pathway. Its broader statewide structure would be established separately because its responsibilities extend beyond education.

23. REQUIRE PUBLIC DASHBOARDS AND HONEST EDUCATION DATA

Parents and taxpayers should not have to search through scattered reports to determine whether their schools are working.

Pennsylvania would establish public reporting covering areas such as:

• academic performance and growth
• graduation
• credit recovery
• attendance
• discipline
• school safety
• staffing
• teacher vacancies
• spending
• reserves
• debt
• contracts
• facilities
• transportation
• special education
• school choice
• athletics
• higher education
• workforce outcomes

Protected personal student information would remain protected.

But institutional performance should be public.

Schools should not manipulate graduation rates, attendance, discipline records, enrollment, testing, credit completion, transfers, dropout classifications, special-education reporting, or career-readiness data.

If the numbers are used to tell taxpayers a school is succeeding, those numbers need to be honest.

24. ENFORCE AUDITS, TRANSPARENCY, AND ANTI-CORRUPTION RULES

A reform that cannot be audited, measured, enforced, appealed, or corrected is only a statement of intent.

Pennsylvania would establish an enforcement system including:

• independent audits
• performance reviews
• complaint procedures
• corrective-action plans
• whistleblower protections
• anti-retaliation protections
• anti-nepotism rules
• conflict-of-interest disclosure
• procurement controls
• payroll review
• vendor accountability
• public-record compliance
• open-meeting requirements
• fraud referrals
• repayment and clawbacks where appropriate
• civil or administrative penalties where authorized
• leadership review
• state or county intervention for persistent failure

Enforcement should distinguish between honest mistakes, temporary hardship, genuine underperformance, negligence, deliberate concealment, fraud, retaliation, and chronic institutional failure.

The purpose is correction, student protection, accountability, and public trust.

No part of this reform should exist only on paper.

25. PROTECT RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, FREE EXPRESSION, AND LAWFUL PARTICIPATION

Pennsylvania schools should respect constitutional rights.

Students and employees should retain lawful freedoms of speech, religion, association, and expression consistent with legitimate school operations, student safety, and the rights of others.

Voluntary religious expression should be protected.

Government-sponsored religion should not be imposed.

Students should not face ideological coercion or be required to adopt political, religious, or ideological beliefs as a condition of participating in public education.

Public meetings concerning education should remain open to lawful public participation, criticism, disagreement, and scrutiny.

Schools belong to the public.

Public disagreement is not misconduct.

26. MEASURE THE REFORM AND CORRECT WHAT DOES NOT WORK

Education policy should be judged by results rather than slogans.

The reform would undergo periodic review examining:

• academic results
• student safety
• graduation integrity
• teacher and staffing effects
• special-education outcomes
• school-choice outcomes
• facilities
• transportation
• higher education
• workforce alignment
• spending
• administrative burden
• taxpayer impact
• property-tax protection
• unintended consequences
• local implementation problems

The reform should be strong enough to enforce.

It should also be honest enough to measure and adjust.

The ultimate question is simple:

Are Pennsylvania students safer, stronger academically, better prepared, and more capable of entering adult life?

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PENNSYLVANIA

For students:
Stronger academics, safer classrooms, honest grades and diplomas, earlier intervention when they fall behind, more career pathways, stronger protection from bullying and violence, and better preparation for adulthood.

For parents:
Greater transparency, access to records, curriculum information, stronger notice and consent rights, participation in major decisions, school-choice information, complaint and appeal rights, better safety communication, and protection against major decisions involving their children being deliberately hidden from them.

For teachers:
Stronger classroom authority, better discipline support, improved staffing and substitute planning, protection from unsafe conditions and retaliation, less pressure to manipulate grades or statistics, and greater accountability for administrators.

For students with disabilities and additional needs:
Services based on legitimate individual need, stronger IEP and Section 504 accountability, appropriate educational settings, parent involvement, intervention, transition planning, and protection against both abandonment and permanently lowered expectations.

For taxpayers:
Spending controls, audits, public dashboards, procurement transparency, stronger oversight of contracts and public funds, coordination with Property Tax Reform, and consequences for waste, fraud, abuse, and deliberate concealment.

For employers:
Stronger workforce pipelines, expanded skilled-trades and apprenticeship opportunities, better career preparation, industry credentials, and more young adults entering the workforce with useful skills.

For communities:
Schools that remain connected to local identity while benefiting from stronger fiscal oversight, shared services, public accountability, community participation, and meaningful pathways into work, service, and higher education.

For Pennsylvania:
An education system judged by whether students actually learn, schools are safe, teachers can teach, parents are respected, diplomas mean something, public money is accounted for, and young people are prepared for what comes next.

BOTTOM LINE

Pennsylvania does not need another education talking point.

It needs an education system that provides every child with a safe school, a strong academic foundation, useful skills, honest standards, and a real path into adulthood.

That means strong statewide standards with reasonable local flexibility.

It means teaching reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, civics, and reasoning.

It means financial literacy, life skills, digital responsibility, and preparation for adulthood.

It means intervening when students fall behind instead of hiding failure through social promotion or weak credit recovery.

It means restoring classroom order and giving good teachers the support and authority to teach.

It means respecting parents and giving them meaningful rights involving their children.

It means protecting student privacy.

It means treating college, skilled trades, apprenticeships, military service, public service, entrepreneurship, and direct employment as legitimate pathways.

It means protecting students with disabilities without abandoning them to either inadequate services or permanently lowered expectations.

It means connecting education funding to Property Tax Reform so taxpayers are not promised relief and then handed the same burden under another name.

It means tracking the money, publishing the results, auditing the system, correcting failure, and punishing fraud and corruption.

Most importantly, it means recognizing that the education system exists to serve Pennsylvania's children, families, communities, and future.

The standard is clear:

Strong academics. Safe schools. Parent rights. Teacher authority. Honest diplomas. Real-world pathways. Taxpayer accountability.

Teach the basics. Restore order. Protect parents. Strengthen teachers. Prepare students for life. Track the money. Hold the system accountable.