It’s summer vacation for Pennsylvania students, but lawmakers in Harrisburg have education on the mind. From policy to funding, here’s what school-related legislation is in the limelight this week in Harrisburg.

Legislation Votes

The Pennsylvania House unanimously passed two bills addressing teacher shortages in the state— HB1403 and HB1404.

A Penn State report published in April says the state has a lack of certified teachers, and districts are relying heavily on emergency permits.

“This is going to help get certified teachers back in the classroom,” said Rep. Bob Merski, a cosponsor on HB1403

The bill passed the House 203-0 on Monday. It removes a fee teachers must pay if they want to pause or unpause their certification. The obscure requirement has lead to some experienced teachers being disqualified or delayed from getting back into the profession.

For example, a teacher in Erie took a few years off from her career to raise kids. When she tried to re-apply for teacher jobs, she had never paid to pause her certification and in turn had year’s of continuing education credits to catch up on.

“It makes no sense to have certified teachers who are willing to teach, and telling them they're not allowed to teach,” Merski said. “While at the same time districts are emergency certifying people off the street, who have no pedology or education experience."

HB1404, which also passed 203-0, extends the internship time for professionals who are switching from their current career into teaching. This can apply to anyone from accountants to engineers. The current time line for these internships is 3 years. If passed by the Senate, that time line would extend to 5 years.

Other education related legislation that passed the House this week...

- HB17 would mandate teaching cursive in school. The bill passed 195-8.

- HB1445 passed 102-101; it mandates insurance policies cover any health services provided in schools.

Over in the Senate, HB240 passed out of the chamber and is headed to the governor’s desk to become law. Currently, school bus drivers with hearing aids take two tests— a hearing test, and then their hearing aid must be electronically tested. That second electronic test has become burdensome, and HB240 removes it from law.

SB375 also passed the chamber with a 47-3 vote; the bill requires AEDs to be present at interscholastic sporting events.

Policy Highlights

Today, lawmakers showed bipartisan support for the Solar for Schools grant program that got funded in last year’s budget. There were 73 schools who collectively won $22.5 million to install solar on their properties. Having a direct source of energy consistently lets schools save money on their utility bills as the cost of electricity keeps rising.

“This is meaningful, very meaningful to a lot of our school districts who are suffering and scrambling to find ways to pay their bills,” Sen. Camera Bartolotta said, a Republican from western Pennsylvania who supports the legislation and wants it to be funded again in this year’s budget.

Speaking of state budgets… one policy issue that could be on the negotiating table right now is cyber charter school reform.

Pennsylvania passed cyber reforms last year; but many Democrats say the changes did not address the core issue of how much school districts should pay cyber charters when a student transfers.

House Democrats passed a bill that installs more transparency and creates a statewide tuition rate of $8,000. Cyber charter advocates oppose the rate.

A spokesperson for Commonwealth Charter Academy said if the online schools are expected to be funded on a per-student rate, then lawmakers should consider how all public schools in Pennsylvania should be funded under a similar ideology.

Money, Money, Money

Lastly, the state budget deadline is 5 days away and education funding remains a big issue in negotiations between political leaders.

“We can't keep going back to local property owners to foot the bill for public education,” Merski said. The Erie Democrat supports continued, robust funding for schools across the state.

Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed a roughly $600 million increase in education formula funding this year.

Republican senators say a looming $5 billion structural deficit, if Shapiro got his budget wish list, must be taken into account.

“Things like education, housing, things like that— you know, are obviously going to get at least some some increase,” said Sen. Dan Laughlin, an Erie Republican. “But it's probably going to be a lot smaller than they had hoped for.”

Other areas of education spending include higher education grants, stipends for student teachers, and mental health and security grants.