City & State PA - 10272016

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October 27, 2016

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City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Greg Salisbury Editor

This is not the page to land on if you’re looking for yet another jeremiad on this seemingly interminable presidential campaign. Am I troubled about the depths to which the discourse has sunken? Have I cringed at having to answer questions from my 12-year-old daughter? Do I wish that the false equivalencies and grading on curves would be replaced by substantive questioning and analysis? Yes, yes and yes. But for someone who loves the American political process – warts and all – we’re truly witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event.

But with all the the attention lavished upon the top of the ticket, there has been precious little oxygen left in the room for local and statewide races. We attempt to remedy that with a subjective shortlist of crucial races in the commonwealth.

And if you have indeed had your fill of the campaign – any campaign – no shame in that. In addition to our regular departments, we’ve got a decidedly nonpartisan walk among the tombstones of Pennsylvania’s dearly departed politicians, which will give a fresh perspective to “whistling past the graveyard.”

We would love to know what you think and where you stand on this election cycle, as well as your views on anything else that piques your interest in this issue, so please email me your letters to the editor at gsalisbury@cityandstatepa.com. (We reserve the right to edit for clarity and content.)

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POLITICAL GRAVEYARDS

What better time of the year to dig up the whereabouts of departed pols in the state?

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MUNICIPAL UNIONS

ELECTIONS

A proudly subjective primer on the races – and one ballot question – that matter most this cycle.

A special section devoted to the issues and people affecting the state’s municipal unions.

22.

PERSPECTIVE

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TESTING

An unlikely alliance of politicians, educators and parents takes a stand against standardized testing.

Tom Ferrick traverses the “Two Pennsylvanias” theory to see its potential impact on the presidential election, and Sabrina Vourvoulias finds a generation’s worth of demographic evolution in the supermarket aisles.

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CityAndStatePA.com

October 27, 2016

WHISTLING PAST THE POLITICAL

GRAVEYARDS

PHILADELPHIA ISN’T JUST the birthplace of our nation – it’s also the burial place of many of our Founding Fathers and other political notables. Here are but a few of the resting places of the state’s famous figures.

Established in 1719, as many as CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND 4,000 souls are buried in PhilaFifth & Arch streets delphia’s Christ Church Burial Philadelphia Ground in Old City, though only 215-922-1695 christchurchphila.org 1,400 stones remain today. Five signers of the Declaration of InPrinted maps ($1) listing 33 dependence are among the many notables are available on site and prominent early American leadinscribed plaques are scattered throughout the grounds. ers interred here.

• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Probably the most famous Philadelphian, Franklin was a scientist, philosopher, printer, diplomat, inventor and signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

His grave is easy to spot: It’s usually covered in pennies, a symbol of good luck and perhaps a nod to his famous motto, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” A crack discovered in his marker is soon to be repaired.

What is it about historical artifacts BEN FRANKLIN’S GRAVE IS DAILY SHOWERED WITH PENNIES IN A MISINTERPRETED TRIBUTE TO HIS MAXIM, “A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED.”

in Philly that crack?

• Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) It’s likely that Rush would have a lot to say about this year’s election – he passionately championed many of the same issues, like health care, immigration, supporting the military and the death penalty (which he opposed). Also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Rush was a physician known as “The Father of American Psychiatry,” a social reformer, treasurer of the United States Mint and founder of Dickinson College.

• Sarah Franklin Bache (1737-1808) Daughter of Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, she shared her father’s passion for our country. Her contribution to the cause was helping to create The Ladies Association of Philadelphia, a leading source of funds during the Revolutionary War. She solicited donations door-to-door, bought fabric and created uniforms, and provided other needed supplies to the Continental Army.

• John Dunlap (1747-1812) Printer of the Declaration of Independence, he published the first successful daily newspaper in the United States, the North American and United States Gazette.

Though John Adams declared July 2 as the date to celebrate the country’s independence, by the time Dunlap printed it, it was July 4. And the rest is history.

ZACK FRANK

Could there be a better time to explore politicians’ final resting places than

By TERRI AKMAN just before Halloween and Election Day?

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LAUREL HILL CEMETERY 3822 Ridge Avenue Philadelphia 215-228-8200 thelaurelhillcemetery.org Maps (free) are available in the cemetery office and a Laurel Hill app with an approximate GPS can be downloaded. Tours are offered year-round.

Located in Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood, Laurel Hill Cemetery has more than 33,000 monuments and over 11,000 family lots within its Schuylkill River-bordered confines.

Founded in 1836, thousands of 19thand 20th-century marble and granite funerary monuments and elaborately sculpted hillside tombs and mausoleums fill Laurel Hill’s 78 acres. In a time before public parks and museums, the multipurpose cultural attraction gave the general public a glimpse of the art and refinement that typically had been only for the wealthy. Among those buried there: • Lewis Charles Levin (1808-1860) Leader of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing party and an anti-Catholic social activist, Levin’s monument was a long time coming. “After he died, his fans bought a lot at the top of the hill for a large and imposing monument, but the treasurer ran off with the money, so for decades, the cemetery had a large base with nothing on it,” said guide Michael Brooks.

• Bernard Goodheart (1931-2014) Known as the judge who played Cupid, the appropriately named Goodheart married hundreds of couples in his City Hall courtroom each Valentine’s Day for decades. While on the bench, he resolved a city-crippling transit strike and threw

THE MOTHER AND TWINS MONUMENT AT PHILADELPHIA’S LAUREL HILL CEMETERY. THE BETSY ROSS HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA.

ROMAN BABAKIN

SMALLBONES

October 27, 2016

out an $11 million libel suit filed by former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo against the weekly newspaper Welcomat.

• Charles Thomson (1729-1824) Emigrating to the British colonies in America from Ireland in 1739, he became a leader of Philadelphia’s Sons of Liberty and served as secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence. After 14 years in a cemetery at Harriton, the promoters of Laurel Hill asked his heirs to move his body to the new cemetery.

When grave robbers at Harriton threw the bodies they were robbing in a cart to make a hasty retreat, the bones were reinterred in Laurel Hill. Some say not all of his bones made the move.

• Boies Penrose (1860-1921) The longest-serving Pennsylvania senator until 2005, when his record was surpassed

by Arlen Specter, Penrose was a boss of the city’s Republican machine. “He once summed his philosophy to a group of businessmen, saying, ‘I believe in the division of labor: You send us to Congress, we pass laws under which you make money, and out of your profits you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money,’” said Brooks.

Betsy Ross (1752-1836) Widely credited with making the first Ameri-

BETSY ROSS HOUSE 239 Arch Street Philadelphia 215-686-1252 betsyrosshouse.org

can flag, Ross is now interred in the Betsy Ross House courtyard, after being moved from the Mt. Moriah cemetery for the Bicentennial.

While she is known as a seamstress, in fact, this proto-patriot successfully operated an upholstery and flag-making business.

A national historic shrine, Center City’s Mikveh Israel Cemetery, founded in 1740, is the oldest tangible evidence of Jewish communal life in Philadelphia.

Soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War are buried there, including: • Nathan Levy (1704-1753) When his infant tragically died, Levy appealed to William Penn’s son, Thomas, chief of the Proprietary Government of PennMIKVEH ISRAEL CEMETERY 44 N. 4th St. Philadelphia 215-922-5446 info@mikvehisrael.org Visitors must call the cemetery to arrange a visit or tour.

CityAndStatePA.com

sylvania, for a private place to bury his child. That led to the establishment of the Mikveh Israel Cemetery. The owner of several merchant ships, Levy used one of his ships, the Myrtilla, to bring the Liberty Bell from London to Philadelphia in 1752.

• Haym Salomon (1740-1785) A financial broker, Salomon provided a reported $650,000 of his own money – over $17 million in today’s dollars – when General George Washington needed cash to pay his soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Even after the war, he is credited with raising money to bail out the debt-ridden government.

Dating back to 1761, the markers in St. Peter’s Church Graveyard in Philadelphia’s Society Hill neighborhood are a mix of obelisks, broken colST. PETER’S CHURCH umns, pyramids GRAVEYARD 313 Pine Street and pedesPhiladelphia tals with urns, 215-925-5968 many worn stpetersphila.org almost comA sign within the graveyard pletely away. directs visitors to a phone number Among the for an instant cemetery tour. notable Revolutionary War figures and national politicians are: • Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) President of the Second Bank of the United States, credited with bringing the classical revival style to Philadelphia in choosing architect William Strickland to design the Second Bank on Chestnut Street in the style of a Greek temple.

• Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) He first defeated the Barbary pirates in 1804 by burning the USS Philadelphia, which had run aground in Tripoli, thus keeping it out of enemy hands. By the War of 1812, he was a commodore and negotiated peace with the Barbary pirates. Killed in 1820 in

October 27, 2016

a duel, Decatur was buried in Washington, D.C., but his remains were moved to his family’s plot at St. Peter’s in 1846.

Old Pine Street Church’s crowded graveyard, a block from St. Peter’s, dates back to 1764. It holds between 4,000 and 5,000 souls in wooden caskets stacked three-deep, at 9-, 6- and 3-foot depths in an area less than three-quarters of an acre. Among those buried: • George Duffield (1732-1790) Co-Chaplain of the Continental Congress, a 14-foot likeness of the Patriot Pastor, carved from a maple tree, appears to be preaching to the Revolutionary War soldiers buried in the graveyard. Duffield’s body, entombed in a lead coffin, is the only intramural burial inside the Colonial-era church.

Numerous renovations caused his gravestone to be moved three times but never his body, which still rests below the floor in the church’s mail room.

• Jared Ingersoll (1749-1822) Son of a Loyalist father who was tarred and feathered for being a Stamp Tax Collector, Ingersoll was an ardent proponent of constitutional reform. He attended every meeting of the Constitutional Committee, though he was known as “the man who was silent.” A signer of the Constitution, he went on to become a famous attorney, trying one of the first labor cases in the country. Since he died on Oct. 31, this is a fitting time to pay your respects.

Established In 1836 on what was then the outskirts of the city, Lancaster’s Shreiner-Concord Cemetery was opened to the public for burials with no restricOLD PINE STREET CHURCH 412 Pine Street Philadelphia 215-925-8051 oldpine.org

SHREINER-CONCORD CEMETERY North Mulberry and West Chestnut Streets Lancaster City of Lancaster Visitor Center 800-723-8824 shreinercemetery.org A kiosk within the cemetery offers some information and tours are available through calling the Visitor Center number listed above.

tions on race or religion. The small, parklike cemetery holds the remains of about 350 souls, including 40 known veterans of military service, mostly from the Civil War. As members of the Shreiner family passed away or moved on, the cemetery eventually declined into its current status of an “orphaned property.” With the aid of the community, the cemetery con-

LEFT: ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS – AND STRIKING – MEMORIALS AT OLD PINE STREET CHURCH IS THIS 14-FOOT LIKENESS OF THE PATRIOT PASTOR, GEORGE DUFFIELD. BELOW: AMONG THE MANY DENIZENS OF OLD PINE STREET CHURCH’S GRAVEYARD IS JARED INGERSOLL, A SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Maps are available for purchase ($5) in the church office and private tours can be scheduled by calling the church office.

THE GRAVEYARD AT ST. PETER’S CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA DATES BACK TO COLONIAL TIMES, AND IS THE RESTING PLACE OF MANY REVOLUTIONARY WAR FIGURES.

TERRI AKMAN

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City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

CHRISTOPHER BAILEY

tinues to remain open as a wooded passive park, though burials are no longer accepted. Those interred include: • Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) Hailed as the father of the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves recently freed, Congressman Stevens would be closely following current events were he alive today. He was also a champion of education, describing his greatest accomplishment as preserving free public schools in Pennsylvania.

• Jonathan Sweeney (1832-1915) Buried alongside his wife, Anna Eliza, at the foot of Stevens’ grave, Sweeney was a member of the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War. He is also believed to have been active with the Underground Railroad, secretly helping slaves on Southern plantations flee from bondage into the free state of Pennsylvania and points farther north.

Part of the American Cemetery Movement of the 1800s, Pittsburgh’s Homewood Cemetery, a lawn park-style cemetery established in 1878 on 200 acres, is just about a third full with 78,000 graves.

Major restorations and more than a century of informed management has maintained the greenswards and deep vistas of the cemetery’s design. Notable features of the cemetery include the Art Deco/Tudor Gothic office and chapel, wrought iron gates by Samuel Yellin and over 250 private mausoleums, including a 35-foot pyramid. Among those buried: • H. John Heinz III (1938-1991) Heinz served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971-77, then as a U.S. senator from 1977 until his untimely death in an airplane crash. The Republican worked to protect Social Security and health care benefits for the elderly, insure free and fair trade, and was committed to the environment.

He rests in his family’s dome-roofed mausoleum, among four generations of his family, 27 different people, in the crypt below.

• Perle Mesta (1889-1975) Known as the “hostess with the mostest,” Mesta spent most of her life in Washington, D.C., as a “kingmaker,” supporting politicians she believed in. She threw elaborate parties and was the inspiration for Irving Berlin’s musical, “Call Me Madam,” where she was portrayed by Ethel Merman. An early supporter of Harry S. Truman, she received the ambassadorship to Luxembourg.

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STUDENTS FROM FULTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, NEXT TO SHREINER CEMETERY, OFTEN HELP WITH CLEANUPS THERE, INCLUDING THE MEMORIAL TO THADDEUS STEVENS.

HOMEWOOD CEMETERY 1599 South Dallas Ave. Pittsburgh

THE HEINZ MAUSOLEUM AT PITTSBURGH’S HOMEWOOD CEMETERY.

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CityAndStatePA.com

October 27, 2016

THE

OTHER GUYS

By RYAN BRIGGS

Our panel of experts weighs in on the three most pivotal down-ballot races in the state – and one intentionally confusing ballot question. only gotten worse.

That said, here’s what to look for as a seemingly endless election cycle draws to a merciful close.

U.S. SENATE In Pennsylvania, the big question at the moment seems to be “how badly will Clinton beat Trump?” – and that’s especially relevant for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. In this, the most expensive Senate race in the country, nearly as much money has been spent in Toomey’s defense as by challenger Katie McGinty – but it may not amount to much if Hillary wallops Trump.

“He and McGinty are like corks floating on the ocean. They will be swept along by whatever the tide is,” said City & State PA’s Tom Ferrick, a former Inquirer political columnist. “If Hillary ends up winning by the polling numbers we’ve seen, by eight or nine points, it’s going to be a blowout for Democrats down-ballot.”

Toomey was pegged early as both politically vulnerable and lackluster on ◀ DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE KATIE MCGINTY, RIGHT, WITH PHILADELPHIA MAHOFF JOHN “JOHNNY DOC” DOUGHERTY, HEAD OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS LOCAL 98. ▼ REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT U.S. SEN. PAT TOOMEY, RIGHT, SHAKES HANDS WITH REPUBLICAN PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER AL SCHMIDT.

the campaign trail. The race to date has been dominated by Toomey’s dithering over whether to support Trump due to his very real fear of alienating both suburban Republicans who despise the billionaire and zealous Trump supporters.

But McGinty is similarly uninspiring, including an amorphous resume with stints in a lobbying firm to boot.

With total campaign spending careening toward $100 million, the money has gone mostly to attack ads, some featuring notespecially clever nicknames, like “Shady Katie” and “‘Fraidy Pat.” What do the candidates have to show for it? The race still appears to be in a statistical dead heat, not too different from when City & State checked in during the spring. That could be fatal for Toomey in a Clinton landslide, as split-ticket voting is a dwindling trend.

“If Hillary wins by even six or seven points in Pennsylvania, which is possible, you’re demanding a lot of ticket splits,” said Franklin & Marshall pollster G. Terry Madonna. “In the presidential race, the polls are varying, but they’re all showing one leader.”

ATTORNEY GENERAL Pity the attorney general candidates, Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican John Rafferty, in this presidential election year. The office has little to do with national politics and has been utterly eclipsed by the Senate and presidential race in terms of attention and outside money.

While Shapiro, a Montgomery County commissioner, is somewhat known on a state level through his brief flirtations with higher office, Rafferty, a Montgomery County state senator, has fought to even register his candidacy with voters.

“We know Rafferty, but the average

WENDELL DOUGLAS/WORKERS LOCAL 98

LIKE A WELL-WORN copy of “Political Mad Libs,” whatever adjective you use to describe this election cycle will somehow be appropriate to a degree. Conventional political wisdom has been “thrown out the window” (in the words of one of our commentators), with wildly fluctuating polls and looming, unanswerable questions about voter anger and turnout. Perhaps more than ever before, state candidates are beholden to the personality contest between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Subordinated by the unceasingly ugly presidential election, even high-profile statewide races have been forced to jockey for attention via televised air wars. With few developed policy issues dominating the national political conversation, major statewide races have been reduced to breathless bromides about “security” or “jobs.” Further down the ballot, races for treasurer or auditor general have barely registered on voters’ radars, if at all. If the political conversation was vapid before, it’s

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

MONTGOMERY COUNTY FLICKR PAGE

Hillary does well, Shapiro will, too. And both men hail from Montgomery County, where Trump is deeply unpopular – another omen boding ill for the Republican attorney general candidate.

▲ DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH SHAPIRO.

voter doesn’t – that’s not uncommon in these types of elections,” said Madonna.

What is uncommon is that the race will conclude just two weeks after a judge sentenced Kathleen Kane, the former Democratic attorney general, on felony perjury charges. In any other year, that would seem like a slam dunk for a Republican, but Rafferty has yet to fully seize upon the connection. “(Kane) is in the news; it’s an opportunity for Rafferty – there’s a link to be made,” said Randall Miller, a political science professor at St. Joseph’s University.

“I don’t know why he hasn’t done it yet.”

Shapiro, meanwhile, seems untarnished by running as the Democratic successor to the troubled Kane.

“The idea is what the A.G. office needs is order and respect … and Shapiro is saying, ‘I’ve got the skills to do it,’” Miller said.

“He’s wearing the label of a Democratic A.G., but he’s not wearing it as Kane’s label.”

Voters may just be too distracted to pick up on the nuance. There has been no polling of the race, but the same rules apply: If

▲ REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN RAFFERTY.

8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT This is the congressional race to watch in the commonwealth, and one of few competitive congressional contests in the country. The Bucks County district has been inexorably trending in favor of FBI agent-turned-Republican candidate Brian Fitzpatrick. His brother, Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, is vacating the seat – no small boon for the junior sibling.

“PA-8 was first charted as a house seat

▲ DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR THE 8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT STEVE SANTARSIERO.

the Dems could a least hope to win, but it looks like there’s no Fitzpatrick fatigue in the 8th,” said Miller. “Some are calling him a carpetbagger, that he’s just trading on his brother’s name ... But he’s also trading on themes that are running in the national election.”

To that end, the younger Fitzpatrick has burnished his candidacy against Democrat Steve Santarsiero by making much of terrorism and other national security threats. To be fair, so has Santarsiero, but the Republican’s law enforcement career may give him a more compelling story.

“One of the things Trump has said that resonated in Pennsylvania is that things are out of control. He’s become the lawand-order guy,” said Miller. “Fitzpatrick is trotting out his FBI credentials, but not associating himself with Trump.”

It’s tough to say if that will be enough to make up for the handicap Republicans face in the Philadelphia suburbs, where Trump’s unpopularity is over 70 percent.

There has been no independent polling

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▲ REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR THE 8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT BRIAN FITZPATRICK.

of this race, but internals and political analysts either have the race neck-andneck or give an edge to Fitzpatrick.

BALLOT QUESTION: JUDICIAL RETIREMENT AGE If any element of an already weird election cycle stands out as exceptionally odd, it’s probably the ballot question on the state’s mandatory judicial retirement age from 70 to 75.

The effort was initially perceived as a way for Republicans to keep state Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor on the bench for five more years, but it has grown more complex. Two former Democratic justices have sued to remove the question, but wider bipartisan outrage has been muted.

“Lots of judges from both parties want five more years,” Madonna noted.

But for voters, that’s not much of a reason to approve the ballot question, which was deliberately reworded by the legislature at one point to make it seem more innocuous.

“Now, the question doesn’t even clearly explain that they’re raising the age from 70 to 75,” Madonna said. “Normally, I think it would pass easily, but given all the recent judicial controversies” – a reference to the “Porngate” scandal – “the voters are probably not keen to giving longevity to any judges, if they can even understand the question.”

While there may be some demographic arguments for updating retirement ages as people live longer, Ferrick questioned the civic value of the proposal.

“Nobody is irreplaceable. Every time I’ve seen a judicial vacancy, it’s gotten a of of attention. So there’s not a shortage of candidates,” he said.

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▲ PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE THOMAS G. SAYLOR.

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CityAndStatePA.com

October 27, 2016

COMMON GROUND AGAINST COMMON CORE Parents, teachers and politicians form an alliance in the fight against standardized testing

By DORIAN GEIGER

IN 2012, AMY ROAT was teaching a class of English language learners in Philadelphia. It was spring – better known in the halls of Pennsylvania’s public schools as test season.

For months, Roat had worked tirelessly to boost her students’ English proficiency in preparation for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), the state’s version of Common Core applied to students from third through eighth grade.

But on exam day, Roat saw her efforts fall drastically short. One of her students, a seventh-grader from the Dominican Republic who had recently arrived in the United States, was visibly struggling with the PSSA. He kept calling over to Roat and her assistant for help “The questions were too complex – it was too long, you know,” Roat recalled.

“He just couldn’t wrap his brain around it.”

But Roat was helpless to assist – PSSA rules prohibited her from offering any type of structural support.

“I asked (my assistant) to sit behind my desk and just stay away from him,” she said.

“She swiveled my chair around and cried.

And then I cried. He couldn’t look us in the eye, and was very noncommunicative for a few weeks after this test.”

As Roat feared, the young man failed.

“At the moment, though, I betrayed him,” she lamented. “I betrayed him.”

In Roat’s mind, though, the biggest betrayal – the most egregious failure of all – was committed by the system itself, specifically the high-stakes Common Core testing, which she believes holds English language learners and students with disabilities to an unfair standard.

“It’s cruel. It’s not educational,” said Roat, who is now a middle school teacher at Feltonville School of Arts and Science in North Philadelphia. “The psychological trauma on special ed students and English language learners is tremendous. They just happen to not perform well on these tests.”

Roat had what she termed an “awakening moment” that day. And she swore to herself she would never violate another student’s trust again.

“The emphasis on standardized testing has changed what we do in school,” Roat explained. “It has taken the focus off

progress and learning,” instead forcing teachers, administrators and students to spend precious class time “on how are they filling in those bubbles on those tests.”

Four years later, Roat has led an initiative against standardized testing at her school.

She’s part of a growing movement in Pennsylvania – and around the country – that advocates for parents’ right to opt their children out of state testing.

Under Pennsylvania law, parents can legally opt their children out of standardized testing for religious reasons.

Organizations like the Caucus of Working Educators and Pennsylvanians Restoring Education have even designed opt-out toolkits to inform and guide parents through the process.

Roat’s advocacy against standardized testing led to around 40 percent of her school’s student body opting out of tests in the 2014-15 school year. Around the same number opted out the following year. At first, despite the legal right to opt out, Roat said that her actions triggered considerable pushback, first from her school’s administration and then from her school district, to the point that she feared

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

SIMONE ROBERTS, 13, TALKS TO A REPORTER DURING AN OPT-OUT DEMONSTRATION WHILE YOUNGER BROTHER CAMERON, 11, LOOKS ON.

for her job.

“My principal was told to investigate whether or not I – or the other teachers the district believed to be involved – violated any district rules,” she said. Ultimately, Roat was found to not be in violation of any district policies.

Robin Roberts, a Philadelphia mother of three, said she saw a similar reaction in her children’s schools.

“Teachers received threats from (the) administration for giving opt-out info out,” Roberts explained. “They were explicitly told not to give out info.”

No fewer than 4,600 students opted out of Pennsylvania’s state exams in 2015 – triple the number from the year before – although still a fraction of the 774,000 who did take them. Across the United States, the number of public school students opting out has exploded. Approximately 675,000 opted out last year. New York and New Jersey are leading that charge, accounting for a combined 370,000 optouts.

The amount of testing children are exposed to, and the time it takes to prepare for those exams – which detracts from learning subjects outside of reading, math and science – is a source of limitless frustration for the opt-out movement and parent-educators like Roat.

Testing is “an absurd use of time,” she

explained. “A lot of parents reject the Common Core for the same reason: It’s narrowing the curriculum. Art, music and social studies are being eschewed to teach reading and math. The education system we’re using is creating robots.”

FairTest, a national testing watchdog, found that U.S. public school students take an average of 110 to 115 standardized tests over the course of their education.

And according to a recent poll by EdWeek, two-thirds of Americans believe that’s too much.

“Whatever people think about standardized testing in principle, they believe that that number is way too many in practice,” said Bob Schaeffer, public education director at FairTest.

In response to the mounting opposition to testing, in March, Gov. Tom Wolf signed Bill 880, which puts a two-year moratorium on the use of Keystone exams – the high school equivalent of the PSSAs – as a graduation requirement. Up until last year, students who failed their Keystone exams could not graduate – even if they passed all their required coursework.

High school students graduating in 2017, 2018 or 2019 must now pass statedeveloped end-of-course assessments in algebra 1, biology and literature, as opposed to taking Keystones, in order to attain a diploma. Students can also meet

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state graduation requirements by passing an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate Exam, or a locally chosen, independently validated exam for each subject area.

“It’s a great first step in revising the graduation requirements in the commonwealth,” said Jeff Taylor, assistant superintendent in the North Hills School District outside Pittsburgh. “I feel good that they’re looking at other alternatives besides a single test to measure graduation.”

Tatiana Olmedo, a public high school guidance counselor in Philadelphia, agreed.

“I strongly support the decision by Gov. Wolf to hold off on making the Keystones a requirement for graduation and that they are investigating other things,” she said.

Many parents across the state are echoing those sentiments.

“I think that Bill 880 is on the right track for what we have to do to reclaim our education,” said Roberts, the Philadelphia mother who opted her children out of the state tests.

“Standardized testing doesn’t take into (account) the differences in our children and the differences that come with their education. There’s no way we can test kids with one single measure and expect them all to be on the same level.”

Roberts began researching the opt-out process when she realized her youngest child, Cameron, then in the third grade and facing his first PSSAs, was not receiving the same support in math and reading as her older children, primarily due to the budget cuts in Philadelphia’s public schools.

“He was being marched into the testing season without sufficient regular education and he wasn’t ready,” Roberts recalled.

“Teachers and administrators hype up the tests and lay a significant amount of pressure on the kids to do well because the tests are used for so many other reasons: evaluations, school closures.”

Cameron wasn’t prepared, and if he failed, Roberts was concerned her youngest would be stigmatized.

“I decided that he was not going to take the tests because along with not being fully educated, I did not want any results to be incorporated into his self-identity,” she said.

Roberts’ eldest son, Miles, is an 11thgrader who said it felt “pretty good” to optout of the PSSAs in the past.

“I had high enough test scores to get into high school, and it was irrelevant to take the eighth-grade PSSAs,” said Miles, 16,

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who attends George Washington Carver School of Engineering and Science in Philadelphia. However, Miles, who has ambitious postsecondary hopes, had already passed his Keystones prior to Wolf’s moratorium taking effect.

Bill 880 falls in line with a trend that’s proliferating nationwide: the possible extinction of exit exams. Twenty-seven states used to administer standardized exit exams, but that number has dipped sharply. Today, just 14 states require standardized exit exams for the 201617 school year. Six states – California, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, South Carolina and Alaska – have even passed legislation that retroactively grants diplomas to students who previously failed their exit exams.

Things are also shifting at a federal level. Just months before Wolf signed Bill 880, President Barack Obama passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. “No Child Left Behind … put a huge emphasis on testing and holding schools, and kids, and teachers accountable through standardized testing,” said Jerry Oleksiak, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

The president’s action was not unexpected: He went on record in 2015 as saying he believed too much testing “takes the joy out of teaching and learning.”

Under the ESSA, which goes into effect in the 2017-18 school year, there will be increased flexibility on federal education policy and the legislation also moves authority back to states and communities.

“A lot of decision-making is put back on the state about what kind of standardized tests you’ll give (and) the emphasis that’s put on them,” said Oleksiak.

Pennsylvania’s existing state plan expired on Aug. 1, meaning the current school year will serve as a transition year for the new framework.

Another popular criticism of standardized testing is the relationship between low test scores and poverty.

Privileged students are known to score in the top percentiles, while less well-off students struggle in testing.

“If your area is more impoverished, you’re going to have a harder time passing the test,” said state Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Democrat, who co-sponsored Bill 880 along with Republican state Sen. Lloyd Smucker.

“You’re stamping failure on students, many of whom don’t even have the

October 27, 2016

“YOU’RE STAMPING FAILURE ON STUDENTS, MANY OF WHOM DON’T EVEN HAVE THE CURRICULUM MATERIALS TO PASS THE TEST.” – state Sen. ANDY DINNIMAN

curriculum materials to pass the test,” Dinniman added.

The problem of standardized tests and poverty is perhaps best illustrated by what is happening in Philadelphia, where roughly 80 percent of public school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Inner-city poverty and the district’s recent financial woes, Dinniman said, have set kids up to fail. A number of Philadelphia’s schools, he added, lack resources such as up-to-date or proper textbooks, classroom space and certified teachers.

Many students “were being taught by uncertified biology teachers, and they didn’t even have the textbooks in the Common Core curriculum upon which they’re being tested,” said Dinniman.

The senator said he is also frustrated by the emergence of standardized testing as a multibillion-dollar industry – money he thinks should be invested in public schools and education, not tests.

“The more money we spend on testing, the less money goes to impoverished schools,” he said.

Dinniman pointed to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s three separate contracts with Minnesota-based Data Recognition Corporation, which oversees and administers online standardized testing in several states, including Pennsylvania, as well as provides tools and materials for test preparation. These contracts stretch back to 2008 and thus far have totaled more than $741 million, of which a little more than half has been paid.

CAMERON AND SIMONE ROBERTS OUTSIDE THE MÜTTER MUSEUM, WHICH THEY VISITED IN LIEU OF TAKING THE PSSA TEST THIS PAST SCHOOL YEAR.

Dinniman said breaking the contract with Data Recognition Corporation could save millions, while potentially putting more funding back into schools throughout Pennsylvania.

“We’ll save a heck of a lot of money that we can put into the schools for real learning, for teaching, not for this phony type of accountability,” Dinniman explained. “Accountability is important.

Testing is important for remediation.

These tests don’t provide it.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Education fielded questions from City & State via email, but did not answer a question about the future of the department’s contracts with Data Recognition Corporation and how that money could be better allocated. Follow-up requests were not answered, either.

While many critics of Common Core are pressing for massive overhauls to the program’s overall model, and some are even calling for the complete abolition of the PSSAs and Keystones, not everyone

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

believes they should disappear, at least not completely.

Standardized tests are a “complete dashboard for student performance,” said JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

“A standardized test score is only part of a picture that we’re trying to gain on how much schools are learning,” she added.

“This is information principals want and need. They want pictures of how kids do in school.”

Bartoletti, who thinks testing has “gone overboard” on the amount of time allocated to the overall testing schedule, is also concerned that the opt-out movement is actually doing more harm than good in Pennsylvania’s schools.

“We oppose opt-out policies for students,” Bartoletti said. “We think it’s really important for kids to participate in standardized assessments because those standardized assessments really give us a complete picture on success. It is problematic when a low number of people participate in standardized tests.”

If too many students opt out, Bartoletti said, it could skew data and negatively impact a school’s ratings. Referencing a recent PDK/Gallup Poll, Bartoletti said that 59 percent of Americans oppose letting students opt out of tests.

Nathan Benefield, vice president of policy at the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg-based free-market think tank, also argued that standardized tests are “an important way to hold schools and teachers accountable, and to give parents information about them.”

Stripping the Keystone exams of their graduation-requirement status has been welcomed as a victory for many in Pennsylvania, but it’s a fleeting fix.

So what’s the future of standardized testing in Pennsylvania? There’s no definitive answer yet, but a recent report, authored by the Department of Education and submitted to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, might offer some clues on how things will play out.

The report found that high school exit exams are not the “sole valid measure of mastery of standards-based core subject matter,” and that project-based assessments, offered to students who fail the Keystones twice, are “ineffective.”

“Senior leaders from the state Department of Education have visited dozens of schools across the commonwealth to meet with students, educators and others to get their input on education policies in

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“SHE SWIVELED MY CHAIR AROUND AND CRIED. AND THEN I CRIED. HE COULDN’T LOOK US IN THE EYE, AND WAS VERY NONCOMMUNICATIVE FOR A FEW WEEKS AFTER THIS TEST.” – AMY ROAT, teacher

the state, including standardized testing, graduation requirements and investing in education,” said Nicole Reigelman, the department’s press secretary.

In light of the report’s findings, the department recommended four options for students to demonstrate postsecondary readiness as far as graduation requirements go: the Keystones; an alternate assessment approved by the department; a trades-oriented exam or assessment; or demonstrating competency in subject matter through grades or assessment that’s coupled with evidence related to postsecondary plans.

“Intentional and meaningful change will take time and collaboration, but with the valuable input garnered from these visits,” Reigelman added, the Department of Education “is able to make thoughtful recommendations to policy-makers.”

“There will be options for school districts to have more flexibility with graduation requirements,” said Oleksiak, the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, who is hopeful that new legislation will allow students who potentially fail their Keystones, but who pass their coursework, to graduate.

“Keystone exams might be a part of that process, but I think that there will be a flexibility … in determining whether or not students can get a diploma.”

But others, like Dinniman, the Pennsylvania senator who co-sponsored Bill 880, hope that the Keystones will disappear altogether as a graduation requirement.

“I think the future of this testing is as follows: They will never go back to the Keystones for graduation,” Dinniman said.

Dinniman envisions a future where Pennsylvania’s schools shift toward implementing SATs and ACTs to replace high-stakes standardized tests, a move that he said could save millions, and one that’s already underway in seven other states.

“It makes perfect sense,” Dinniman added. “They’re already in the schools.

We’re not paying for the entire testing process. You’re paying a fee, which is far less and opens up opportunities for more youngsters.”

Not everyone is so sure, though.

“Two years from now, we’ll be testing kids in Pennsylvania,” said Andrew Porter, former dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. “Mark my words. Maybe with a different test, but it will be a similar test.

You can be sure of that.”

Roat, the Philadelphia middle school teacher and opt-out advocate, is optimistic that Bill 880’s legislation removing Keystones as a graduation requirement will persist long after 2019. However, she’s convinced that if the Keystones are phased out, they will be replaced by another standardized test, which she said doesn’t solve the larger problem at hand.

“It seems as if they just want to replace (Keystones) with a different, better (standardized) test,” Roat said. “Better, really? When so many of our children are standardized, how is that good for society?”

The PSSAs may also not be good as predictors of future performance. The Dominican boy who failed his PSSA, and whom Roat felt she had betrayed, is on track to graduate from high school. Roat, who ran into her former student recently, said that seeing him all these years later – and doing well – was cathartic.

“I was so happy that he seemed to have let go of an incident that held so much significance for me,” she said. “It alleviated my guilt to a large extent, for he represents all of my students. Luckily, for him, there is a moratorium on the Keystone exams as a requirement for graduation, so because of the work of many parents and some teachers, he should have no impediment to graduation.”

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October 27, 2016

SPOTLIGHT:

MUNICIPAL UNIONS It’s no secret that Pennsylvania is a state with long and strong ties to unions. Even with the steady attrition of traditionally union-oriented industries in the state, like coal and steel production, the commonwealth still boasts the nation’s fifth-highest number of union workers – 5.6 million in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A significant percentage of that membership comes from municipal employees – government workers, public transportation employees and teachers, to name a few. Even more significant: While overall union membership in Pennsylvania has, like the rest of the nation, been declining over the past 30 years – falling by half, to just 12.7 percent of all workers, according to unionstats.com – government employees’ union participation has increased, from 49 to 52 percent.

But numbers alone can’t fully illustrate the outsized impact unions have on our lives, as you’ll discover in this month’s issue spotlight.

CONTENTS

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EDUCATE, AGITATE, NEGOTIATE

THESE THREE WATCHWORDS ENCOMPASS THE AT-TIMES CONTRADICTORY DICTATES OF PENNSYLVANIA TEACHERS UNIONS, A DICHOTOMY BROUGHT INTO STARK RELIEF

BY LAST WEEK’S STATE UNIVERSITY STRIKE.

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ELECTING TO GET INVOLVED

UNIONS CONTINUE TO BE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF ANY GET-OUT-THE-VOTE INITIATIVE.

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

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MUNICIPAL UNIONS

EDUCATE, AGITATE, NEGOTIATE

By MELISSA JACOBS

Across the commonwealth, teachers’ unions have struggled with difficult contract situations.

NINA ESPOSITO-VISGITIS, RIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE PITTSBURGH FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, STUMPS FOR THE $15 MINIMUM WAGE ALONGSIDE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN.

NINA ESPOSITO-VISGITIS is looking forward to her afternoon budget meeting.

Budgets are usually not chock-a-block with good news for teachers, but at least Esposito-Visgitis is meeting with city officials about her union’s next contract. That’s because she’s president of the PFT that’s not constantly in the news: the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. PFT400 is currently in a position that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers envies – that of negotiating a new contract.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has been without a contract for four years – or, as a recent protest T-shirt made clear, 1,000 days. The union’s last contract expired in 2012, then operated under a oneyear extension. In October 2014, Phila-

delphia’s School Reform Commission, the body appointed by the state to oversee the city’s public schools, cancelled the collective bargaining agreement it reached with PFT. In August, the state Supreme Court overturned that power play, ruling that the SRC did not have the right to do so.

What initially seemed like a victory for PFT became only the latest chapter in the ongoing contract saga. The SRC has not agreed to new negotiations, despite the union’s repeated calls for it to do so. In the meantime, the union remains stuck between a rock-like SRC and a hard place, otherwise known as Act 46: a state law that makes it illegal for Philadelphia teachers to strike.

Esposito-Visgitis counts her lucky stars

that she does not have to deal with an SRClike entity. “We’re not under state takeover like Philadelphia and I’m so grateful for that,” she said. “For SRC to blame the situation on the teachers’ union makes me angry. (PFT President) Jerry Jordan is doing everything he can to get SRC back to the negotiating table and I fully empathize with him. The situation is ridiculous for Philadelphia teachers – and students.”

While Philadelphia union leadership declined repeated requests for comment, Rosemary Boland had no problem voicing her opinion. “What’s going on in Philadelphia is noticed all over the state and the country,” she said.

Boland is executive vice president of the Pennsylvania branch of the American Fed-

CityAndStatePA.com

eration of Teachers. AFT-PA represents more than 36,000 members in 93 local affiliates, including Boland’s Local 1147 in Scranton. Boland is president of that local and led its October 2015 strike, which lasted two weeks and ended in a contract that had slight pay increases and slight healthcare cost increases. But Boland knows full well that Philadelphia teachers don’t have a strike option. “At least not one that’s legal,” she clarifies. “Teachers and other workers in Philadelphia public schools deserve better than this.”

The lack of a contract for teachers has long-term implications for Philadelphia’s public schools, Boland said. The teacher exodus, as bleakly illustrated in a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, will only get worse, and attracting new teachers will continue to be difficult. “People can’t continue to work if their salaries and benefits are not looked at in a fair way,” she said.

“Teachers have to think of their financial futures and those of their families. At the very least, there should be contract negotiations between PFT and the SRC.” Esposito-Visgitis’ union and the Pittsburgh School District have a productive relationship. “PFT400 has a long history of collaborating with our district,” she said.

“We have had flare-ups and disagreements, some of which were handled better than others. But we always work for the betterment of our teachers and students. SRC should learn from us.”

At issue now is PFT400’s new contract.

The previous contract expired in 2015. Both sides agreed to a two-year extension, not because there were contentious issues but because a new superintendent was about to take office. “Superintendent (Linda) Lane was leaving and didn’t want to set an agenda for the new superintendent,” Esposito-Visgitis explained. “We agreed to an extension to give breathing room to Dr. (Anthony) Hamlet, the new superintendent.”

Hamlet’s tenure began in dramatic fashion: His resume came under scrutiny for discrepancies, and he was accused of plagiarism. An independent inquiry exonerated Hamlet and he was sworn into office in late June of this year, just before negotiations began with PFT400. Hamlet’s presence isn’t the only new factor. Esposito-Visgitis said there has been a lot of turnover on the school board. Because of the number of new members, both sides thought it best to use attorneys during the negotiating process.

Esposito-Visgitis emphasized that they are employing – not deploying – lawyers. “I’m expecting this to be a positive and transparent situation for both sides,” she said.

October 27, 2016

That’s not been the situation with the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) and PA’s State System of Higher Education (SSHE).

APSCUF had never gone on strike before doing so last week – the union’s 5,500 professors and coaches voted to do so in late September after having worked without a new contract for two years. They set an Oct. 19 strike date, at which point professors and coaches at 14 of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities walked off the job and onto picket lines for three days.

Most of the contentious issues stemmed from a massive state budget shortfall. The crunch began in 2011, when state and federal contributions to SSHE were cut by more than 15 percent. Gov. Tom Wolf’s budgets have provided fiscal relief, but the deficit remains. APSCUF President Ken Mash fully

acknowledged a need to trim the hedges.

“There are limited resources, but chancellors and presidents certainly take salaries,” he said. “The question is how to live in this financial reality without compromising the quality of higher education in Pennsylvania.

There are things at issue that are important enough for us to strike.”

Chief among them: changes that would affect adjunct faculty and graduate student teaching assistants. Mash main-

ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FACULTIES PRESIDENT KEN MASH

“IF RESPECT ISN’T SHOWN FOR THE DIGNITY OF THE WORK ON BOTH SIDES, NO ONE WILL AGREE TO CONCESSIONS.” – ROSEMARY BOLAND, Scranton Federation of Teachers president

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

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SCRANTON FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PRESIDENT ROSEMARY BOLAND, SECOND FROM LEFT, SPEAKS AFTER ENDING A 2015 STRIKE.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

City & State Pennsylvania

BILL MYERS

October 27, 2016

tains that SSHE’s last proposal before the strike called for graduate students to teach more labs, which he sees as a first step toward using them to teach entire sections.

SSHE denied this, and refuted the union’s claim that creating more online classes would marginalize professors’ roles, claiming that the increasing demand for online classes is good for higher education as a whole.

While Mash opposes SSHE’s stance on those issues, his most vehement objection is to a proposed 20 percent pay cut for adjunct faculty. In its official statements, SSHE explained the pay cut this way: “State System is proposing to adjust the pay rate for part-time, temporary faculty from $5,826 for a three-credit course to $4,660 in conjunction with our proposal for temporary faculty to no longer be required to do research and service. Even with that change, our pay rate is among the highest in the nation.”

Mash wasn’t having it. “SSHE said the pay cut reflected a change in workload, but to everyone on campus, that was laughable,” he said. “They want to cut salaries for the people who get paid the least.

It’s ridiculously unfair.”

Also unfair, Mash said, was a 2015 baitand-switch deal. It originated with the one-year contract extension that AFSCME-13, the union for federal, state, county and municipal employees, signed with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in August 2015. Members got step increases – increases in salary based on commensurate experience – without conceding to increases in health care contributions.

Mash would have happily agreed to that and proposed it to SSHE. But SSHE wouldn’t make that deal, and instead required health care increases. “AFSCME and other unions got that extension with no conditions,” Mash said, “so you can imagine what our reaction was.”

Generally favorable three-year contracts were ratified in August and September 2016 by AFSCME, SEIU and other municipal unions. Step increases were provided to offset a bump in health care costs, which union leaders conceded was necessary to avoid a reported $160 million deficit in the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund. APSCUF is not part of the fund, nor does it negotiate directly with the commonwealth, something Mash laments.

There’s no shortage of bad blood between APSCUF and SSHE. Mash contends that SSHE repeatedly acted in bad faith. “We put a comprehensive proposal

17

A MEMBER OF THE PHILADELPHIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PREPARES A POSTER READING “THE POWER IS IN THE VOTE” IN SPANISH.

on the table, and they responded with a proposal that had 249 changes,” he said.

“The average number of contract changes would be about 10. We had to go through each one of those 249 items, some of which were silly and we agreed to, but some of which were clearly delay tactics.”

Mash also took issue with SSHE publishing APSCUF’s proposals on its website. “It was not a productive way to negotiate when you’re worried that any suggestion you make will be publicized,” he said. “It was plain and simple foot-dragging.” To be fair, SSHE published many of the details of its own proposals. Highlighted is an AFSCME-like proposal of raises in exchange for health care contribution increases. According to SSHE’s numbers, full-time faculty would, over a 3-year span, receive pay increases of 7.25 to 17.25 percent, which amounts to $159 million in exchange for approximately $70 million in health care and other operational changes.

SSHE doesn’t have much love for APSCUF, pointing out that the union authorized strike votes during each of its four most recent contract negotiations before agreeing to terms. SSHE also made it clear that that, by law, faculty members do not have to abide by a union strike and are free to cross picket lines and conduct classes.

Mash doesn’t see that happening, saying that 82 percent of union members voted and 93 percent authorized the strike.

Ultimately, the three-day strike netted a three-year deal for APSCUF. On Oct. 21, APSCUF and SSHE agreed to a new

contract. While full details have yet to be announced – or ratified by APSCUF members – union president Ken Mash portrayed it as a victory. “Our primary goals were to preserve quality education for our students, protect our adjuncts from exploitation, and make sure the varieties of faculty work are respected,” Mash said. “We achieved every single one of those goals, and the faculty were willing to take less than every other bargaining unit in order to preserve those goals.

We are relieved to have an agreement that preserves quality public higher education in Pennsylvania and allows our members to get back into the classroom where they belong.”

For its part, SSHE emphasized that faculty will get pay increases while the state sees savings on health care costs. “Today is an opportunity for a fresh start,” said State System Chancellor Frank T. Brogan.

“Throughout this process, our students have been remarkably patient, and they should be applauded. Now, we look forward to making sure the rest of the year ends strong for them and for our talented faculty.”

All of this seems to reinforce Boland’s assertion that mutual respect is the necessary ingredient of successful negotiating. “If respect isn’t shown for the dignity of the work on both sides,” she said, “no one will agree to concessions. It’s a matter of agreeing on the reality of a financial situation, then determining what each party needs to do its work – because that work matters.”

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CityAndStatePA.com

October 27, 2016

MUNICIPAL UNIONS

ELECTING TO GET ORGANIZED

By CARMEN DEL RAVAL

SEIU HEALTHCARE PA

Pennsylvania’s labor unions are corralling votes for their preferred candidates – though not all of them are backing Democrats.

SEIU HEALTHCARE PA VOLUNTEERS STAND IN FRONT OF THEIR HANDIWORK SUPPORTING HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT.

SEIU HEALTHCARE PA

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

ON A SUNNY, unseasonably warm Saturday recently, Arlena Hill’s neighbors were relaxing around their barbecues.

But Hill, a 55-year-old nurse and union organizer from Pittsburgh, put on her “SEIU For Hillary” T-shirt and headed to the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, hoping to persuade voters to support the Democratic presidential candidate.

When an African-American teenager in a barbershop confessed he planned to sit out the election, Hill was ready with an impassioned spiel and a stack of papers. “I have some registration cards right here.

I come prepared,” she said, watching as the chastened young man filled out a form under her watchful gaze.

Winning the votes of fellow Pennsylvanians one conversation at a time is a way of life for legions of union members like Hill. A passionate Democrat, Hill took a leave of absence from her job as a hospital nurse to work as an election-year organizer for the Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.5 million public and private-sector workers throughout North America. Instead of catheters and gauze, Hill’s days are now filled with getout-the-vote phone calls, door-to-door canvassing and registration efforts in places like that barbershop.

“I’ve always fought for the rights of people and been very political,” explained Hill, who grew up in a Chicago union family and organized her co-workers to affiliate with SEIU. “We formed our union at the hospital because we had no voice.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Hill added, “wants to take your voice away … We have to win this election because it’s about our core values. If you care about these things, you need to cast your vote.”

In her passion and discipline, Hill embodies the political power of today’s labor movement, which remains strong in Pennsylvania despite a nationwide decline. The Keystone State’s 700,000 union members overwhelmingly support Democrats – and with Trump’s direct appeal to working-class voters, labor is mobilizing, as it has for more than a century, to influence what many see as a make-orbreak election for worker interests.

With unions’ share of the American workforce now touching 11 percent – down from 20 percent in the 1980s – and a political climate in which national Republicans have long been hostile to labor, “the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Matt Yarnell, who at 36 became the youngest leader of a major Pennsylvania union when he was elected

president of SEIU Healthcare PA this year.

“Unions have not lost as much political influence as their membership or economic clout would have you believe,” affirmed labor expert Philip Dine, whose 2008 book, “State of the Unions,” surveyed the U.S. labor landscape. “That’s because they’re well organized, they’re disciplined and – especially in primaries, when a small number of people vote – they’re very organized and make a big impact. And they counteract business interests on the Republican side.”

Those interests routinely outspend labor by a wide margin in campaigns both local and national (though United Steelworkers is the third-largest contributor in the current Pennsylvania election cycle, funneling $2.6 million, mostly to Democrats, according to OpenSecret.org). But grassroots organizing is labor’s secret sauce. “Money is essential: You can have the best message in the world, but if you can’t connect with the voter, forget it,” said State Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat who is counting on union support to win a U.S. House seat in November. “They use the leverage of people

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PATRICK EIDING, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILADELPHIA COUNCIL AFL-CIO

to counterbalance the influence of money …

They will do everything they can to get that person elected who shares their values.”

Especially this year, labor can’t take anything for granted. More than a third of members in swing states backed Trump in a September poll taken by the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of unions.

Intent on reversing the trend, the group is marshaling its Pennsylvania forces, with a half-dozen daily events from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

“Every day, we have people on the phones. Every day,” said Patrick Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-

“MONEY IS ESSENTIAL: YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST MESSAGE IN THE WORLD, BUT IF YOU CAN’T CONNECT WITH THE VOTER, FORGET IT.” – State Rep. DWIGHT EVANS

ARLENA HILL, A NURSE AND UNION ORGANIZER FROM PITTSBURGH.

CityAndStatePA.com

AUTHOR PHILIP DINE

CIO. “We have folks knocking on doors every day and night. We know where all our members are, we know whether they vote; it’s all computerized. We have a very progressive, 21st century program.”

Eiding’s group has been a major election player since its founding in the 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

But 2016, with a political landscape that is increasingly hostile to organized labor, has been anything but business as usual. For this election cycle, Eiding said the AFLCIO refined its strategy to organize more of its own campaign work; it also invested in sophisticated technology to track voter data, enhancing the efficiency of time-honored techniques like canvassing, phone banking and registration drives. “We know that in the city of Philadelphia, if we get the vote out, Hillary Clinton will win and Katie McGinty will win,” said Eiding.

Elsewhere in the state, the picture is less clear. While union leadership has largely endorsed Democrats, officials are dismayed by a Trumpward drift among rank-andfile members in western Pennsylvania, where the region’s manufacturing base has been eroded by globalization. Trump’s protectionist rhetoric and exhortations against international trade deals target the steelworkers and coal miners who, a generation ago, were Reagan Democrats.

Today, their ears perk up at Trump’s vows to bring back American jobs – vows that ring false to frustrated labor leaders.

“The problem with a lot of this is the candidate himself has literally lied about his positions on labor issues,” complained Dave Fillman, executive director of Pennsylvania AFSCME, whose 67,000 workers constitute the largest union affiliate in the

October 27, 2016

state AFL-CIO. “Our members listen to his feel-good rhetoric and say, sure, that sounds good. But his hotel stuff was made in China, he’s an advocate of national right-towork legislation, which in a sense outlaws unions, and he wants to do away with the minimum wage.”

Labor advocates fumed in August when Trump suggested that Michigan’s unionized autoworkers earn too much money. And a recent USA Today Network investigation turned up dozens of lawsuits filed by contractors who allege that Trump businesses stiffed them for work on his real estate projects. Yet the Manhattan billionaire’s patriotic message resonates anyway, especially with culturally conservative voters in rural Pennsylvania.

“He’s very good at tapping into people’s anger and exploiting it for his uses,” said Yarnell. “It’s frustrating that people don’t dig a little deeper on Donald and understand that what people are angry about in America is, in fact, what he represents.”

Some of those workers have long voted Republican; many are willing to consider candidates of either party. Despite labor’s heavily Democratic tilt – 85 percent of political spending by unions nationally went to Democrats in the 2015-16 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org – labor officials stress that their guiding philosophy is nonpartisan. “We don’t support Democrats or Republicans. We support people we feel are conscious of workers’ needs,” Eiding said.

And that is why the Fraternal Order

of Police voted to support Trump this November, becoming the nation’s highest-profile union to do so, said Robert Swartzwelder, who serves as president of the union’s founding Lodge No. 1 in Pittsburgh.

Swartzwelder said that of the two major candidates, only Trump answered the group’s election-year questionnaire and accepted an invitation to meet with the national organization. So while the realityshow star may not align with police on every issue, “his overall message is very positive toward the law, and he at least agreed to listen to what we had to say,” Swartzwelder said.

Unions, after all, are hardly monolithic.

While they share a common goal of ensuring good working conditions and benefits for members, each has its pet issues. While broadly shared priorities, such as raising the minimum wage, tend to align with the Democratic Party, industryspecific concerns may not.

It’s no coincidence, for example, that the labor groups supporting Trump represent law enforcement, given the candidate’s hardline stance on immigration, his endorsement of stop-and-frisk policing, and a widespread perception among many police that Democratic sympathies lie more with Black Lives Matter than the thin blue line.

Another obvious, more local example: the enthusiastic support several Republican politicians enjoy from the United Food and Commercial Workers, which includes members of the Pennsylvania Liquor

ANDREW KAHL

20

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR US SENATE KATIE MCGINTY MET WITH MEMBERS FROM SEIU HEALTHCARE PA, 32 BJ AND 668 DURING A ROUNDTABLE EVENT GEARED TOWARD WOMEN AND THE FIGHT FOR $15.

ANDREW KAHL

City & State Pennsylvania

SEIU HEALTHCARE PA

October 27, 2016

21

“WE DON’T SUPPORT DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS. WE SUPPORT PEOPLE WE FEEL ARE CONSCIOUS OF WORKERS’ NEEDS.” – PAT EIDING, president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO

SEIU HEALTHCARE PA MEMBERS GATHER FOR A CLINTON CAMPAIGN EVENT THAT ALSO PROMOTED THE “FIGHT FOR $15.”

Control Board. UFCW Local 1776 has endorsed the candidacy of Republican Tom Mehaffie, who owns a local beer distributor and has pledged to oppose the privatization of state-run liquor stores as he runs for the state House of Representatives.

The UFCW is also a longtime booster of state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, a Bucks County Republican who consistently votes in favor of protecting UFCW jobs at the stores, as well as workers’ right to organize.

These stances put him at odds with more ideological factions of his own party, but “you’ve got to represent your district,” explained DiGirolamo. “My district has a very solid, heavy labor presence.”

While some criticize the state liquor monopoly for being anti-consumer, DiGirolamo listed several reasons for supporting it aside from the protection of what he called 4,500 “decent, familysustaining” UFCW jobs at state liquor stores. The current system ensures a consistent annual revenue stream that Pennsylvania relies on, he said, and as chairman of the House Human Services Committee, DiGirolamo said he worries about the social and health ills that would come with expanded alcohol access.

As such, DiGirolamo considers his career an example of how political interests and workers’ interests can align, regardless of party. “Labor unions support people who are open-minded enough to listen to the issues that are important to unions, and vote in favor of the issues that are important to them,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to work together.” (Which isn’t to say that relationship can’t get a little too cozy: The

FBI is currently investigating a series of charges related to political and financial corruption in Philadelphia’s electricians union and its powerfully connected president, John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty.)

In the past, American workers’ groups were far more likely to support Republicans than today, according to Dine. But the parties have become far more polarized in recent decades, with tea party groups vowing to dismantle unions and slash the very taxes that subsidize public-sector jobs. “It’s become a dogma to be anti-labor in the Republican Party,” said Dine. “It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. Labor sees that happening and supports Democrats.”

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania declined to comment for this article, but Marcel Groen, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democrats, confirmed that unions are a powerful Democratic ally for practical reasons. “The unions’ role is to protect their membership – it’s not to support Democrats or Republicans,” said Groen. “But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Hillary is going to be a lot better for labor than Trump.”

During labor’s mid-20th century heyday – before globalization shipped factory jobs overseas, Reagan emboldened corporations by firing striking air-traffic controllers and complex laws discouraged workers from organizing – numerous Republicans were “fiercely pro-union,” Dine affirmed. He rattled off a list of well-known Republicans with strong labor ties: Gov. Tom Ridge and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Jacob Javits and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York.

It may not be a coincidence that New York and Pennsylvania are among the seven states that are home to more than half of American union members, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While labor is under serious attack in states like Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker’s battle against public teachers’ unions has made him a hero of the right, “we saw that happen and we doubled down, making sure that something like what happened in Wisconsin wouldn’t happen here,” said Fillman.

As Dine observed: “Politically, there is not the will to destroy labor in Pennsylvania.” With a plethora of unionheavy industries like transportation, as well as deeply forged ties with politicians, the Keystone State is likely to remain a bright spot for labor, observers say. Another factor: In Pennsylvania, support for unions is often a family tradition. Evans, for instance, said his views were shaped by his father, a longtime Teamster who worked his way up to foreman at the Quaker Storage Company. “That union fought for certain things: retirement, minimum wage, a 40hour workweek,” Evans recalled.

A generation later, unions are fighting harder than ever. Labor may never be able to match the dollar-for-dollar impact of corporate money, “but it has the shoe leather, which corporations cannot match,” said Dine. “Tens of thousands of people on the ground, doing phone banks, knocking on doors, one-on-one conversations – that’s invaluable. Labor, because of its discipline and its foot soldiers, can still make a huge difference.”

■

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PERSPECTIVES

THE

October 27, 2016

TWO

Much of the Keystone State hasn’t recovered from the long decline of manufacturing and mining – and those affected voters could tip the balance in November.

MINERS DESCEND INTO COAL MINE IN HAZLETON, PENNSYLVANIA, CIRCA 1905.

WHEN IT COMES to the November presidential election, it’s best to think of Pennsylvania as two states.

I don’t mean the ancient east-west division between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Nor am I talking about the classic party division of Democrat versus Republican.

What will make the difference in this election – what may decide whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump takes this state – is the dichotomy between the Pennsylvania that is prosperous and growing and the Pennsylvania that is stagnant or in decline.

You can use different numbers to tell the same story.

Consider population growth: Over the last five years, the

By TOM FERRICK

population in southeastern Pennsylvania has increased by 110,000, while the population of the cluster of counties around Pittsburgh has declined by 12,000.

Look at manufacturing jobs – a popular topic in this year’s election. If Donald Trump is going to bring back those jobs, he’d better hurry. In the last five years, the Pittsburgh-Johnstown-Altoona region has lost 60 percent of its remaining manufacturing jobs – 141,000 in total. The southeast portion of the commonwealth has lost them, too, but the Philadelphia labor market’s decline has been a less severe 38 percent, or 111,000 jobs lost.

It isn’t new that Pennsylvania is losing manufacturing

EVERETT HISTORICAL

PENNSYLVANIAS

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

WHAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN THIS ELECTION IS THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE PENNSYLVANIA THAT IS PROSPEROUS AND GROWING AND THE PENNSYLVANIA THAT IS STAGNANT OR IN DECLINE.

jobs. We are, simply and plainly, in a post-industrial era.

We’ve been losing those jobs for decades. The question for each town and city is: How successful have you been in replacing the factory jobs with New Economy ones, such as education and health care, tourism and business services?

The answer depends, in part, on when you entered the cycle of industrial decline. If you lived in Philadelphia in 1960, you would have had good reason to be optimistic: The population was over 2 million, and the economy had a strong and diverse range of manufacturers. The future looked secure.

We weren’t a one-industry town like Detroit or Akron or Pittsburgh. We were the Workshop of the World, and had been so since after the Civil War. What Philadelphians could not foresee – what no one foresaw – was the collapse of the entire manufacturing sector that began in the 1960s, and which has yet to find bottom. The ’70s and ’80s in the city were ugly periods of readjustment. It has taken Philadelphia three decades to climb out of that hole.

Not that the city is a wonderland of prosperity today.

A study released earlier this year by the Economic Innovation Group, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, took a deep dive into the Distressed Communities Index of every community in the country, based on ZIP codes.

The study looked at the percentage of residents with only a high school education, the housing vacancy and poverty rates, the percentage of adults not working and the median household income – all measured by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The worse a community did on these measures relative to the national averages, the higher its score.

There were 20 ZIP codes in Philadelphia with distress scores of 75 or above. Clearly, the post-industrial era has not brought prosperity to these neighborhoods. The same was true of neighborhoods in once-flourishing cities like Lancaster, York, Allentown and Reading.

The researchers called this “spatial inequality” – the

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presence of poverty touching shoulders with stable or prospering neighborhoods. On a map, it looks like a circle of green, with smaller circles of red within.

Philadelphia did not have the highest distress score in the state. That distinction went to Forest County, which lies about 60 miles southeast of Erie. The surrounding country is, appropriately, mostly forest. It has a population of 7,600.

There are other counties in the same end of the state as Forest that are also high on the list: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Indiana and Lawrence, to name a few.

These are areas that once were defined by their steel mills, factories, coal mines and logging operations. Today, those are gone, and no new industries have emerged to take their place. As the population ages, the young must leave town to look for work, and so the vacancy and poverty rates rise.

There are towns in these counties that have a past, but no perceivable future, though it sounds stark to say so.

They are often identified with the industries that made them. For instance, the small town of Crucible, in Greene County, was named for the Crucible Coal Co., which operated mines there. The coal company is gone, but Crucible remains – and it has the highest distress index in the state (99.4), according to the Economic Innovation Group study.

This phenomenon is centered in the west, but not exclusive to it. Pennsylvania is littered with place names that no longer apply or make such sense anymore. The hard coal country in northeastern Pennsylvania, for instance, hasn’t mined hard coal since the 1960s.

Years ago, my then 7-year-old son turned to me during an NFL game between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and asked, “Dad, why are they called the Steelers?” I started to answer but sputtered to a stop. (It turned out that since Pittsburgh had a baseball team called the Pirates, it seemed logical to him to have football team named the “Stealers.”)

“Change” is a magic word in America. Something to be embraced. It’s also a word that can make many gnash their teeth. To them, the word means loss and decay; it engenders anger and resentment.

It doesn’t take much research to figure out why Donald Trump held one of his big rallies in Altoona, a town in the midst of the anger zone in Pennsylvania. For many, Trump incarnates their desire to smack the powers that be in the face. He also explicitly promises to bring back manufacturing jobs and to revive the coal industry in America. He will summon up the past and make it live again.

The Republican candidate is trying his best to roust these voters and get them to the polls on Nov. 8. It may help explain why, until earlier this month, Trump and Clinton ran so closely in state polls.

There is something to keep in mind as Election Day approaches. In politics, the angry often out-vote the contented.

■

Tom Ferrick is an award-winning reporter and columnist who has covered state and local government politics since the 1970s.

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PERSPECTIVES

CHANGEUP IN AISLE 1 To see the evolution of communities, just check out the local supermarket. By SABRINA VOURVOULIAS

WHEN MY PARENTS moved us from Guatemala City to Chester County in the mid-1970s, we were the first Latino family to move into our neighborhood – and, undoubtedly, the first people to chatter with each other in Spanish at the annual oxtail roast at the local firehouse.

The area we moved to was rural, within hailing distance of the towns of Downingtown, Coatesville and Exton, and my mother haunted the supermarkets in each of them, searching for a way to make frijoles volteados, the refried black beans that are part of every Guatemalan meal. It is hard to imagine now, but those stores didn’t stock black beans back then. My mother resorted to scouring the canned soups, looking for Campbell’s black bean soup, with which she could (ingeniously and magically) replicate a passable version of the bean dish she used to call “the Guatemalan caviar.”

But had my mother lived long enough, she would have witnessed a sea change on those Chesco supermarket shelves. Because even more than the sudden (and gratifying) proliferation of small ethnic food shops, there is no easier way to mark demographic changes than by walking into a “general interest” supermarket and noting what is offered in its produce section.

The Giant in Thorndale, for example – which serves residents of Downingtown and Coatesville, in addition to Thorndale – sells cassava, tamarind, plantain and several varieties of papaya in the produce section. Without even looking at an actual demographic breakdown of the three towns the supermarket serves, a culinarily and culturally adept observer can quickly intuit there are probably growing African, Caribbean black and/or Latinx, and Asian populations. The inclusion of Maseca brand cornmeal among

City & State Pennsylvania

October 27, 2016

the flours and bricks of orange-red achiote paste, made from annatto seeds, among the spices hints at Mexican residents as well.

So, let’s look at the actual demographics. (I used Census Viewer, which includes data from both the 2000 and 2010 census, to track the growth or decline of populations.)

Thorndale itself is 84.91 percent white; 8.89 percent black or African-American; 4.34 percent Latinx; 3.11 percent Asian and less than 1 percent Pacific Islander or American Indian. It hasn’t experienced much growth in the decade between census tallies – in fact, the black/ African-American, Latinx, Pacific Islander, American Indian and white populations have all declined. The Asian population has grown by a modest 27.71 percent.

But remember, that supermarket also serves residents in the two adjacent towns, and retail strategies are predicated on growth trends, even when current counts are small.

Downingtown is 79.27 percent white; 12.01 percent black or African-American; 7.19 percent Latinx; 2.74 percent Asian; and less than 1 percent Pacific Islander or American Indian. But, the Latinx population in Downingtown grew 111.57 percent between 2000 and 2010; the very small Pacific Islander population grew by 200 percent; and the Asian and black/African-American populations grew by a more modest 24.14 and 15.75 percentage points, respectively. The white population experienced a decline of 1.47 percent. The very small American Indian

IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE NOW, BUT STORES DIDN’T STOCK BLACK BEANS BACK THEN. MY MOTHER RESORTED TO SCOURING THE CANNED SOUPS, LOOKING FOR CAMPBELL’S BLACK BEAN SOUP, WITH WHICH SHE COULD (INGENIOUSLY AND MAGICALLY) REPLICATE A PASSABLE VERSION OF THE BEAN DISH SHE USED TO CALL “THE GUATEMALAN CAVIAR.”

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population declined by 33 percent.

Coatesville, the third and largest town the supermarket serves, is 46.4 percent black or African-American; 38.03 percent white; 22.96 percent Latinx; and less than 1 percent Asian, Pacific Islander or American Indian. And check out the growth rates between census tallies: 159.09 percent for the Latinx population, 91.23 percent for the Asian population, and whopping 333.33 and 60.53 percents for the small Pacific Islander and American Indian communities, respectively. The black or African-American population grew by 14.5 percent, and the white population by 11.63 percent.

The bitter melons, Indian eggplants, long beans and tamarinds found at Produce Junction in Exton speak to the 229.07 percent growth in the Asian population in the town (5.95 percent of the total population in 2000, 17.53 percent in 2010). Furry-red rambutan fruit and baguette-like bolillos for sale at the Walmart that straddles Chester and Berks counties (it’s located where Elverson and Morgantown meet) reflect the Asian population growth rate of 133.33 percent and Latinx growth rate of 233.33 percent in Elverson, as well as the 137.5 percent Asian growth rate and 200 percent Latinx growth rate in Morgantown.

In 94 percent white Ephrata, a Lancaster County town of the same total population, roughly, as Coatesville, with a Redner’s, Weis, Walmart and Giant all in close proximity to each other, it is even possible to understand the demographics within a growing demographic by looking at the shelves.

At Ephrata supermarkets, not only is Mexican queso fresco – “fresh cheese” – available, so is queso blanco – “white cheese” – from Colombia, and the queso para freir – “cheese for frying” – popular among Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and other Caribbean Latinxs. The fresh cremas – straddling the line between crème fraîche and sour cream – offered for sale are both Mexican and Central American. And at the meat counter, tripe – a popular ingredient in both Mexican menudo and Puerto Rican and Dominican mondongo – is a staple. All of this speaks to the diversity within the Latinx community itself.

Ephrata’s Latinx population grew 91.97 percent from 2000 to 2010. The black or African-American population also grew substantially (56.1 percent) and the Asian population moderately (22.14 percent). The small city’s white population grew less than 1 percent.

Once you start playing the supermarket product demographics game, it is hard to stop. And yes, it is kind of fun. But more, it helps us understand that thinking of any suburban county or central “garden spot” as homogenous and unchanging is to be hopelessly mired in the past.

My mother would have liked the Chester and Berks and Lancaster counties of today. She, like many of us living out this way, would have been delighted to be part of the change that’s been cooking.

■

Sabrina Vourvoulias is an award-winning metro columnist at Philadelphia Magazine and an op-ed contributor to The Guardian US.

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CityAndStatePA.com

October 27, 2016

CITY & STATE PENNSYLVANIA Publisher David Alpher dalpher@cityandstatepa.com Editor Greg Salisbury gsalisbury@cityandstatepa.com

It can feel kinda self-defeating to do this department right now and not feature the month’s most glaringly obvious national-level choices in each category, but we’re keeping the blinders on and staying focused on the homegrown product … Winners & Losers, that is – what sort of homegrown products did you think we were talking about?

Staff Reporter Ryan Briggs rbriggs@cityandstatepa.com Finance and Office Manager Allison Murphy amurphy@cityandstatepa.com

LOSERS JIM KENNEY – The Philadelphia mayor’s much-ballyhooed pre-K expansion is finalizing contracts and beginning enrollment – with the presumption that his much-ballyhooed soda tax to fund it all doesn’t get taken out by an ongoing court challenge.

Kenney staffers were reportedly busy crossing their fingers.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Chairman Steve Farbman President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstatepa.com Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstatepa.com Managing Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstatepa.com SEN. STEWART GREENLEAF – The state senator spearheaded efforts to make police body camera footage nearly inaccessible to the public. Police departments may as well invest in selfie sticks to go with their officers’ new equipment, because that’s about all the cameras will be good for if Greenleaf’s bill becomes law.

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

MELONEASE SHAW - A judge tossed

SEN. MIKE FOLMER - Back in 2012,

charges that the lobbyist took money

libertarian groups applauded Folmer’s

meant for welfare grants and spent

refusal to include biometric technology

it on line-dancing lessons and other

in state ID cards. Now PA driver’s

frivolous expenses, probably over

licenses are a few years away from being

issues with a statute of limitations. So

unsuitable for use at airport security,

if you want to spend $300,000 of state

border crossings, military bases and

money on trips to Atlantic City, just

other federal properties. Uh ... thanks?

don’t get caught for a while.

REP. MARK ROZZI - The legislative

WEST YORK - The tiny town’s mayor,

session is likely to end without a vote

who shared racist internet memes

on Rozzi’s bill to expand the statute of

depicting President Barack Obama as

limitations on sex abuse charges. Rozzi

a primate – among other social media

and thousands of other Pennsylvanians

abominations – finally stepped down.

are victims of sexual abuse, and

Now the residents can start working

there’s nothing funny about the state’s

on being known for something other

continued refusal to help them receive a

than “that town with the racist mayor.”

small measure of justice.

Creative Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstatepa.com Digital Manager Chanelle Grannum cgrannum@cityandstatepa.com

Vol. 1 Issue 7 October 27, 2016

CIT YANDSTATEPA .COM

@CIT YANDSTATEPA

October 27, 2016

Cover by: GUILLAUME FEDERIGHI Copyright ©2016, City and State PA, LLC

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Please submit your nomination(s) of friends, colleagues, family and other people you think are destined for greatness for City & State PA’s 2016 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in PA government, politics, advocacy and media. City & State PA will close the submissions process Friday, Oct. 28, with selections to be announced at the end of October. City & State PA will celebrate this year’s group of Rising Stars at a reception in Philadelphia, location and date to be announced.

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