News & Brews August 24, 2026
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Opining on Shapiro’s data center flip flop
Analyzing Gov. Shapiro’s recent data center reversal, the Post-Gazette’s Brandon McGinley writes, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion Shapiro’s instincts for pragmatic governance are being distorted by his presidential ambitions…..”
Meanwhile, across the state, the Morning Call ran an op-ed accusing Shapiro of “ceding a trillion-dollar industry to other states to solve a nonexistent crisis” and “bowing to vocal opposition while ignoring economic reality and the management capacity Pennsylvania possesses.” These are just two examples of the bottom line: Just about everyone seems to recognize Shapiro’s about face as purely politically motivated.
Are Americans really angry about capitalism?
Former Pa. State Rep. Frank Ryan (a former U.S. Marine who literally walked across America—no joke) has a great op-ed positing that growing discontent among voters isn’t truly about capitalism. After all, what we have today is “not laissez-faire capitalism but a regulated economy masquerading as capitalism.”
Indeed, “The United States has not operated a purely free-market economy for generations. To believe otherwise is sheer fantasy.” Instead, today’s system is “an American economic hybrid that an uninformed public is told is still capitalism and that’s what gives the Democrat Socialists a foothold.”
Could new school choice program be ‘public school cash machine’?
The Washington Post reports on an angle of the new federal tax credit scholarship program that hasn’t been talked about much: how public schools might be able to use the program to increase their bottom lines. Per recently released U.S. Treasury guidelines “the program allows specific nonprofits to collect donations that people direct from their federal taxes for a vast array of public school costs, such as transportation or tutoring.”
This “now places some governors, superintendents and school boards in a new dilemma: Do they choose to tap into a Trump-backed program that could boost their bottom line, or leave the tax-credit cash on the table for others to claim?” Gov. Shapiro, of course, has refused to commit to the program, dillydallying while claiming insufficient information to make a decision.
Op-Ed: Pa. education is ‘anything but adequate’
Commonwealth Foundation President and CEO Andrew Lewis writes in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Pennsylvania “now spends nearly $24,000 per student, the tenth-highest rate in the nation.”
Despite this, “Pennsylvania’s education-funding formulas are not grounded in reality. None of them are tied to how many students they serve or how well they perform in school. Instead, they rely on ‘hold harmless’ to guarantee funding increases for districts—all without any accountability measures to ensure that districts not only spend these funds efficiently but are also held responsible for poor academic performance.”
Trump hoarding cash ahead of tough midterms?
It’s widely anticipated that this year’s elections will be tough for Republicans at all levels—from congressional races (Pennsylvania has four of the most competitive) down to state legislative races (Dems are gunning for a trifecta).
Against this backdrop, national Republican Party committees are outraising Democrat Party committees, but individual Democrat candidates are outraising Republican candidates. A big part of any GOP advantage, however, is Trump’s PAC, MAGA Inc., which has more than $404 million.
But there’s one footnote, according to Bloomberg: “MAGA Inc. has so far spent just $2.3 million, or 0.6% of its savings, to influence elections on behalf of Republican candidates this cycle.” This raises the question of whether Trump will help other GOP candidates or whether he meant it when he said earlier this year, “I don’t care about the midterms.”
