Pennsylvania State Senator Drafting Bill to Kill ‘Culturally Relevant’ Guidelines

A Pennsylvania state senator is working on legislation to abolish the commonwealth’s new Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) guidelines that impose leftist ideology on teachers and students. 

The document instructs teachers to “know and acknowledge that biases exist in the educational system,” biases the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) specifies as “racial and cultural.” Educators are further called on to “believe and acknowledge that microaggressions are real and take steps to educate themselves about the subtle and obvious ways in which they are used to harm and invalidate the existence of others.” Another guideline tasks teachers with “disrupt[ing] harmful institutional practices, policies, and norms by advocating and engaging in efforts to rewrite policies, change practices, and raise awareness.” 

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Pennsylvania Takes Steps to Ease Volunteer Firefighter Crisis

by Lauren Jessop   As Pennsylvania’s volunteer firefighters dwindle, lawmakers hope to reverse the trend. States nationwide struggle to recruit and retain volunteers, while simultaneously investing time and money into training required to keep up with stringent regulations. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, volunteers account for 96.8% of firefighters in Pennsylvania – the third highest percentage in the country. The national average is 70.2%. Since the 1970s, the ranks of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania have dropped from 360,000 to fewer than 37,000. A bill passed unanimously by the Senate last week would create a pilot program for community colleges and universities within the state’s higher education system to provide firefighting training to high school students. It’s now under consideration in the House of Representatives. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Crawford, would grant $150,000 to one school in three regions across the state – eastern, central, and western – to establish fire training programs. Brooks’ Chief of Staff Adam Gringrich told The Center Square the senator was pleased to have the bill moved so early in the session and hopes that the House takes it up when they convene. “The regional component of the grants addresses the equal need…

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Pennsylvania Senate Bill Proposed to Address First-Responder Shortage

State Senator Michele Brooks (R-PA-Greenville) is encouraging colleagues to back two upcoming bills she proposes to allay shortages of first responders in Pennsylvania. 

The first piece of legislation concerns insufficiencies among volunteer-firefighter companies. In a memorandum to fellow senators asking them to cosponsor her bills, the senator noted that certain professionals including corrections officers undergo rudimentary training in fire suppression. Nonetheless, that instruction does not yet count toward the over 200 training hours that aspiring volunteer firefighters must acquire in order to qualify. Brooks’s bill would make workers’ basic-firefighting lessons applicable to those seeking to join local fire departments. 

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Education Voucher Program Works Its Way Through the Pennsylvania Senate

Pennsylvania Capitol Building

The Pennsylvania General Assembly has moved another step closer in creating a scholarship program for students in underperforming schools to transfer elsewhere.

HB2169, narrowly passed in the House in April, would grant a $6,800 Lifeline Scholarship to students in the bottom 15% of the lowest-performing schools and allow them to use the money on tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

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