News & Brews November 17, 2025
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Pa. releases school assessment results
On Friday, which is typically the day you issue a news release when you don’t want anyone to pay attention, the Pa. Department of Education released the 2024-2025 school assessment results. ABC27 reports that while “proficiency rates in Math increased for the second consecutive year from 40.2% to 41.7% … proficiency rates in English Language Arts decreased from 53.9% to 49.9%.” Meanwhile, “Assessment scores in Science were waived due to updated standards.”
Analysts & operatives give 2026 gubernatorial take
Spotlight PA reports on the opinions of party insiders and campaign operatives on next year’s gubernatorial race, in which Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity aims to challenge Gov. Josh Shapiro. Democrats, not surprisingly, are pointing to this year’s wins, while Republicans, not surprisingly, are saying odd-year elections “don’t predict the midterm election results.”
Budget winners & losers?
PennLive offers its take on the winners and losers in this year’s state budget. Among the losers is “the definition of ‘balanced’.” The story explains, “In his remarks before signing the budget bills, Shapiro repeatedly referred to the budget as ‘balanced.’ This is only true if one considers an existing cash surplus to be revenue. The $50.1 billion spend will be offset by only about $47 billion in income … meaning the state will likely have to balance the budget by using most of the existing surplus in the general fund, a one-time source of money.”
Pa. budget bullies cyber students out of funds
Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow Guy Ciarrocchi writes in Broad + Liberty that despite a “taxpayer-funded deficit-spending spree,” in the recently enacted state budget, “one area of the … budget was cut: funding for cyber charters students. For the second year in a row, over 68,000 K-12 students from Erie to South Philly will get less funding — retroactive to the start of this school year, beginning three months ago. Tragically, too few Harrisburg politicians care about those children, and almost no politician fears the wrath of their parents, families, and the schools’ staff. Plus, far too many love the teachers union — or fear their wrath.”
Fetterman back home after heart episode & fall
Sen. John Fetterman is back home after a heart episode and fall last week. The senator posted that he required 20 stitches and expressed gratitude to “UPMC for the incredible medical care that put me back together.” WESA reports that cardiologists said “the heart health condition [that caused Fetterman’s fall] could have been deadly if it wasn’t immediately treated, and that his life was likely saved by an implant given to him after a stroke more than three years ago.”