CHAP Legislative Update – as of July 2023

Pennsylvania House

• The House is in recess until September 26, 2023.
• Since our last report, 23 bills have been referred to the Education Committee. There are no bills that should be of concern to PA homeschoolers.

Pennsylvania Senate

• The Senate is in recess until September 18, 2023.
• Since our last report, 4 bills have been referred to the Education Committee. Six bills have been voted out of committee.  None of these bills should be a concern to PA homeschoolers.
• On June 26, the committee considered the nomination of Dr. Khalid Mumin as the Secretary of Education. The former Reading and Lower Merion superintendent was confirmed as the PA Secretary of Education in a 46-3 vote.

Local School Districts

• Continuing issue: A number of school districts have begun to reject the Unsworn Declaration. To best address this issue, it has been recommended that Title 42, Chapter 62 of the Uniform Unsworn Declaration Act be amended.  The definition portion of the act found at section 6202, should be amended to include, “sworn declaration to include, a notarized affidavit”.
• Lebanon School District recently sent a letter to homeschool families saying that if the homeschooled child was subject to the testing requirement, “…those test results must be submitted. … I trust that you understand and will comply with the provisions of the law defined in this letter.” CHAP co-signed a letter with HSLDA to inform the school district that there is no statute that requires home school families to submit test results to any school official.

Other

• Pennsylvania now has a new HSLDA attorney assigned to our state, Will Estrada. We wish Scott Woodruff God’s blessings on his new assignment.
• In the academic school year 2023-2024, it is believed that Pennsylvania spending will exceed $20,000 per public school student. Pennsylvania is in the top eight states in spending per student.
• The Faith and Freedom Index which is compiled by the NAPA Legal Institute determined that Pennsylvania is ranked 40th out of 50 states for its friendliness toward faith based non-profit organizations. The survey revealed that Pennsylvania only obtained a score of 30% on religious freedom and a score of 55% as to regulatory freedom.

Issues of Interest

• The annual budget and related legislation are stalled due to the breakdown of negotiations between the governor, the Republican controlled Senate and the Democrat controlled House.
  • The major issue is the Governor has gone back on a campaign promise of school choice for children in poorly performing schools. He has indicated that he would use his line- item veto to prevent the awarding of select scholarships to these children.
  • This is a win for the teacher’s union and local school boards in poor performing districts.
• A partial budget was approved with a 6% increase in spending funded by a one-time surplus which evaporates after this budget year of 2023-2024.
• In the academic school year 2023-2024, it is believed that Pennsylvania spending will exceed $20,000 per public school student. Pennsylvania is in the top eight states in spending per student.