News & Brews January 23, 2026
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Pa. gets a D in education freedom
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its 2026 Index of State Education Freedom, which ranks states based on five categories: student-centered funding, charter schools, home schools, virtual schools, and open enrollment. For the third year, the top spot went to Florida, which earned an A+. Texas advanced 15 spots to #9 after passing universal school choice. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, ranked 32nd overall, earning an abysmal D. By category, we earned a D in student-centered funding, a C in charter schools, an F in homeschooling, a C in virtual schools, and a D in open enrollment.
Efforts emerge to save Post-Gazette
After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced it would shutter in May due to various factors including the high cost of union demands, Axios reports that some investors are hoping to save the storied paper by turning it into a non-profit. Meanwhile, some Post-Gazette employees who did not participate in the recent three-year strike are calling for an election of new union leadership, claiming the union and striking workers did not represent the majority of the paper’s workers.
GOP candidate announces for Cumberland House seat
After GOP state Rep. Sheryl Delozier (Cumberland County) announced last week that she will not seek re-election, the first Republican candidate seeking to replace her has just announced her candidacy. Savannah Martin, who works for the lobbying firm Triad Strategies, launched her campaign while calling for “managing growth and affordability” and “saying she hears residents’ concerns about housing costs, school capacity, traffic, and infrastructure,” PennLive reports.
Democrats’ nonprofit problem
Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Barton Swaim connects “the unfolding debacle in Minneapolis” to “an underappreciated fact about the Democratic Party: It is configured to react in unreasoning rage to everything President Trump does.” But this, Swaim contends, “is only a symptom of the problem. The problem itself arises from the Byzantine network of activist nonprofits created and fostered over the past decade and a half by liberal foundations and progressive billionaires.” And he traces this nonprofit proliferation to 2010 and one issue: climate change. It’s an interesting read.
Philly eyes school closures
The Inquirer reports, “Wholesale changes are coming to the Philadelphia School District, with Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. poised to propose a massive reshaping of the system, including closing 20 schools.” Also part of the 10-year plan: “159 [schools] would be modernized, six colocated inside existing school buildings, 12 closed for district use, and eight closed and given to the city. At least one new building would be constructed.” Meanwhile, the Inquirer recently described the fact that 75% of Philly’s students aren’t proficient in math as “steady improvement.” Suffice it to say it’s going to take more than building changes to fix Philly’s schools.