On Monday in the Capitol Rotunda students, teachers, charter school supporters, and legislators joined to celebrate 20 years of Pennsylvania's charter schools.

With lawmakers and legislative staff holding nearly non-stop meetings to find some middle ground on a gaming expansion measure crucial to the coming fiscal year’s budget, progress on Monday toward that agreement was reported as slow.

As the page turns on a fresh week for state lawmakers to work on crafting a FY 2017-2018 budget plan, news bubbled up early Monday that Republican lawmakers—absent the desire for broad-based tax increases, a severance tax on natural gas, or closing tax exemptions—were looking at leveraging state assets and potential borrowing to help balance the coming fiscal year’s spending plan.

The House Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing Monday morning to discuss the topic of public higher education and the costs associated with it.

The hearing was designed to learn the impact of funding to the system and how legislators could aid the public higher education system through strategic state policy to increase dollars sent to higher education.

Act 188 of 1992 created the state system’s mission statement by employing the highest quality education at the lowest possible cost, but Pennsylvania ranks 47^th out of the 50 states for per student allocation for public higher education according to Dr. Kenneth Mash, President of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University faculties (APSCUF).

Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny) recently sat down with The PLS Reporter to talk about so-called ghost teachers in Pennsylvania and his new bill, House Bill 167, and how that would limit the days teachers are allowed to be out of their offices.