CORP’s symposium “Beyond a New School Funding Formula: Lifting Student Achievement to Grow Pennsylvania’s Economy” at Harrisburg University in downtown Harrisburg, PA on May 6, 2015 brought together leaders in business, labor, advocacy, civic endeavors, education, and government. The event was presented by the University Consortium to Improve Public School Finance and Promote Economic Growth (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.)

Speakers included Lynn Karoly, senior economist of the RAND Corporation on “The Economic Impact of Achievement Gaps in Pennsylvania’s Public Schools,” (pdf.) (You will need Adobe Acrobat, or Acrobat Reader to access this file.) and Marc Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy on “What Can Pennsylvania Learn from the World’s Leading School Systems?”  Panelists and participants included Rob Wonderling, President and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; Senator Lloyd Smucker; Randy Albright, PA Secretary of the Budget; Gene Barr, President and CEO, PA Chamber of Business and Industry; Rick Bloomingdale, President, PA AFL-CIO; David H. Monk, Dean, Penn State College of Education; Senator Andrew Dinniman; Rep. Jim Roebuck; amd Rep. Stan Saylor. The discussions were moderated by Francine Schertzer, director of programming for Pennsylvania Cable News.

Temple’s Center on Regional Politics (CORP), Penn State’s College of Education, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Metropolitan Studies in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs formed the consortium to support state legislators and policymakers in a review of options for improving public school finance in Pennsylvania.

Also in the consortium is the Pennsylvania Policy Forum, an informal network of faculty members, academic leaders, and policy researchers at public and private colleges across the Commonwealth. Working with the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Policy Forum has organized symposia on institutional issues for all Senate and House members and information sessions for newly elected members of both chambers.

This was the third of three symposia. The first symposium was in Conshohocken in May 2014, and the second was in Green Tree outside Pittsburgh in October 2014.