Janiyah, left, and Stephanie Davis of Philadelphia, listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Janiyah, left, and Stephanie Davis of Philadelphia, listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
For the State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump invited a mother and daughter from Philadelphia as special guests. He pointed them out during the speech and used the moment to criticize Gov. Wolf for vetoing a school choice bill back in June. “No parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government school,” Trump said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wolf dismissed the criticism. “Yeah, come on. I mean, I understand he was trying to make a — score some points,” Wolf told me and other reporters. “There was some posturing going on there.”
Wolf vetoed a $100 million increase to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program in June. But, a few weeks later, he agreed to a $25 million increase to the program as part of a budget compromise.
The dispute between Wolf and Trump was pretty low key, as these things go. (Trump and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner traded harsher words in December.) Still, the policy issue is a big one in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Capital-Star’s Elizabeth Hardison took a deep look at the tuition tax credits, with an interactive graphic showing how funding for the program has increased over time.
This dispute is also a reminder of this deep look at whether the tax credits benefit the neediest students. Avi Wolfman-Arent of Keystone Crossroads found dozens of schools that “report enrolling zero low-income students or said they couldn’t determine how many low-income students they have.”
As for the Philadelphia mother and daughter who were special guests at the State of the Union, NBC Philadelphia reports that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos plans to personally pay for the girl’s tuition at a private school for a year.
PA Post’s Joseph Darius Jaafari combines photos, an interactive feature and deep reporting to show the high prices inmates pay for tampons, Ramen noodles, shampoo and other items from jail commissaries in Pennsylvania. The point of the story: Inmates pay more, sometimes substantially more.
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators voted how you would expect on the impeachment articles against President Donald Trump. Republican Pat Toomey voted to acquit. Democrat Bob Casey Jr. voted “guilty” on obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican senator to break with his party, as he voted guilty on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power.
So how will impeachment play in Pa. this fall? A few politicians told The Philadelphia Inquirer that they didn’t think voters were paying much attention … except those who were, and they’ll be fired up this fall to vote for, or against, the president’s reelection.
On the same day that the Senate voted to acquit, Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, visited Pennsylvania for a school-choice push in Philadelphia and a “Women for Trump” event in Cumberland County. (He also stopped at a diner in Lancaster County, LNP reports.)
We’ll be hosting a President’s Day Party at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 17 at Zoetropolis in Lancaster. We have some fun trivia planned and we’ll be showing the comedy, “The Campaign,” starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis (I’ve never seen it. No spoilers!). Tickets for the event are $10 and include the opportunity to win prizes and more. More information here. Hope to see you in person!
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