A 10-year-old boy who allegedly robbed a Dollar Tree store in Pennsylvania is also accused of stabbing multiple times one of the employees trying to detain him.

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The Swatara Township Police Department reported that its officers were called around 5 p.m. on Monday to the discount store in Harrisburg where they found the boy being held by store employees. 

Timeline:

After speaking with witnesses, officers determined that the grade-school-age child went into the store holding a fixed-blade knife, threatened an employee, and told her to give him all the money.

Customs officers use Heimlich maneuver to save choking toddler

The employee’s co-workers jumped in to help her. As they struggled to subdue the boy, he stabbed one of them multiple times, the police department reported. Its statement did not indicate how badly that employee was injured, only saying that medical treatment was needed.

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The suspect was taken by officers to a detention facility where he was booked on counts of robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and possessing an instrument of a crime.

• The House added two session days to work on the budget, while the Senate recessed until the call of its president.
• Key disagreements include the overall spending amount, the use of rainy day funds, and revenue from legalizing marijuana and skill games.
• The Democrat-led House passed a $53.3 billion budget in April, which the Republican-controlled Senate has not acted on.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives added two session days to its calendar this week while the Senate took off for an early holiday as another state budget will not be finalized on time.

House Speaker Joanna McClinton added voting sessions for 11 a.m. July 1 and 9:30 a.m. July 2. Senate Republicans voted to return at the call of President Pro Tempore Judy Ward, frustrating some Democrats.

More: Pennsylvania’s budget is due June 30. Will lawmakers make it?

Changes to the calendar throughout the year are routine, McClinton’s press secretary, Nicole Reigelman, told USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania. “Nothing specific led to it,” she said.

A late budget would mark the fifth time in as many years elected state officials missed the statutorily mandated June 30 deadline. Last year, it was not signed until Nov. 12.

“We’re walking out the door while the House is in session the next two days and the governor is in place to work with us here to get this done,” Sen. Vincent Hughes, a Democrat from Philadelphia, said on the Senate floor before voting against the recess that Republicans passed.

The Senate is not scheduled to return to session until Sept. 28. After July 2, the House’s next scheduled return is also Sept. 28. Both chambers could be called back at any time.

“I am highly confident we are well on track to deliver a responsible budget that will recognize our unique status as a divided government and deliver a responsible product to the people of Pennsylvania with no negative impacts,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, a Republican who represents Indiana County, said on the Senate floor. “There’s no reason we can’t conclude our work early next week.”

Minority Leader Jay Costa, a Democrat from Allegheny County, disagreed and said returning July 5 would be inappropriate.

“Some may characterize talks as hopeful and seem to be coming together,” Costa said from the floor. “Based on my recent conversations, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

But a budget could be getting close, according to one Republican state representative who requested anonymity. “There’s going to be very little policy in the budget,” the representative told USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania. “I take it to mean that there aren’t going to be major policy changes and negotiations will center around dollars and cents.”

The House passed a $53.3 billion budget plan in April with a bipartisan vote, but the Republican-controlled Senate has not acted on it. It would cost roughly 5.6% more than the state spent in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

“The Senate hasn’t passed a budget,” Reigelman said. “We’re proud that we got them something more than two months ago.”

That budget was performative, according to Republican Senate Majority Caucus Chair Kristin Phillips-Hill, who represents York County.

“It was really cute,” Phillips-Hill told USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania. “There is not enough money from taxpayers to pay for the budget they sent us. To me, that’s completely unacceptable.”

Republican legislators have opposed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to use $4.7 billion of rainy day funds to balance the budget. GOP leaders in the House and Senate have said excessive spending could downgrade the state’s credit rating and lead to future tax increases.

Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office projects a worsening deficit for the state that could reach $8.3 billion in three years.

Pittman said in an interview earlier in June that this budget has a “much different feel” since it lacks a big issue hanging over lawmakers the way a debate over mass transit funding lingered in 2025.

“We have an opportunity to pay our bills and reduce the deficit we’re facing and hopefully not dip into reserves any more than is absolutely necessary,” Pittman said June 26 in an interview on Indiana County radio station WCCS 101.1FM.

Proposals in the budget include new revenue from legalizing recreational marijuana and skill games. The state Legislature has until mid-October to decide if Pennsylvania will allow skill games after the state Supreme Court ruled on June 15 that they are illegal.

“The question is, how, given the Supreme Court ruling where they said these are slot machines, how do you delineate that taxation approach?” Pittman asked during his interview. “If we don’t do anything, these machines are gone. Period.”

State oversight for skill games would include licensing and regulations through the state’s Gaming Control Board. Slot machines in a casino are taxed at 52%, Pittman said.

The Independent Fiscal Office maintains that Shapiro’s revenue estimates for recreational marijuana and skill games exceed their own estimates by $4.4 billion over the next three fiscal years.

Mark Walters is the USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania statehouse reporter. Reach him atmwalters@usatodayco.com.

In Burrell School District, teachers are preparing for a fourth consecutive year with fewer than 100 students in kindergarten.

That would be fine if small kindergarten classes were what Burrell was built to accommodate. It is not, however, the historical norm. The district’s kindergarten enrollment has fallen by about 23% over the past decade. That might not seem like a problem. It could mean more space in the classroom or more opportunities for participation.

But that’s not quite how it works.

Burrell is not alone. Eight of the 11 districts in the Alle-Kiski Valley have also seen slumping enrollment in recent years. The same is true of Franklin Regional, Greensburg Salem, Ligonier Valley, Penn-Trafford and others in Westmoreland County.

It isn’t just smaller districts, either. Pittsburgh Public Schools has just moved forward with a plan for closings and restructuring based on declining numbers.

The problem comes because school districts play a long game. They plan years down the road because making last-minute changes is difficult when those changes affect thousands of children’s lives.

Declining enrollment is also a more complicated issue than increasing numbers, even though it might seem easier to handle. More students might be handled with larger class sizes or wedging in more desks. It could require temporary trailers to accommodate more students. In the long term, it means building projects.

But fewer students can have costs, too.

It might seem to point to smaller class sizes. But it can sometimes mean the opposite as classes might be reconfigured, pushing two smaller groups into an oversized one. Operating a building too large for the student body can mean a disproportionate use of staffing, equipment and utilities. Consolidating buildings can increase transportation costs.

That hurts because, if student enrollment is down, it also can mean overall district population is falling, leaving fewer people to foot the bills.

And that circles back to a problem that has plagued Pennsylvania for generations — funding school districts based on property taxes. It builds on the inequality outlined in the 2023 Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruling that called the way schools are funded unconstitutional.

Declining enrollment can exacerbate the unfairness as it increases the burden and potentially leaves it to fall on fewer shoulders.

The solution, in any other business, would be to correct such a decline. However, it’s not a school district’s job to recruit residents, only to support the ones there.

Districts are left to cut staff or let it wither through attrition, to merge physical facilities and possibly to trim services where possible. All of that means districts from shrinking areas, like poorer areas, can have a very different educational experience than larger and wealthier locations.

The reality of tax burden and changing population is seen in the state’s demographics. Census data shows, while the state overall isn’t losing population, growth isn’t robust or uniform. While some city centers are increasing, others are slipping away. At the same time, the population is aging rapidly.

Commonwealth Court recognized inequality in education cannot be ignored simply because it has existed for a long time.

Demographic decline deserves the same attention. Pennsylvania can’t build an equitable education system for tomorrow while pretending it still serves the Pennsylvania of yesterday.