Pennsylvania
'Educators for Biden-Harris' launches in Pennsylvania with focus on teacher pay • Pennsylvania Capital-Star
PITTSBURGH — When her daughter was born, Valerie Williams had already had her on a waitlist for childcare for six months, hoping she’d have a spot lined up before it was time for her to go back to her job as an early childhood educator. She eventually found a child care program, but said she had to work extra jobs just to pay the $1,400 monthly bill— the equivalent of a second mortgage or rent payment, Williams said.
“I was a pretty good teacher working for untenably low wages, teaching in a local Pittsburgh area child care center making $12.40 an hour — that’s $496 a week before taxes, or $25,792 a year — from which my own health care premiums were also deducted, a few hundred dollars each month,” Williams said. “So I worked two additional jobs at that time, routinely working seven days a week.”
But then she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While it was ultimately benign, at the time of her diagnosis Williams had no idea how she was going to manage or how much medical care she would need. Then she was hit with another shock: She could not afford the deductibles and copays under the health care plan provided by her teaching job.
“I realized that my wages were so low, I couldn’t afford to use my own health care,” Williams said. She made her comments at the Friday launch in Pittsburgh of an “Educators for Biden-Harris” initiative for Pennsylvania, joined by state Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers president Bill Hileman.
Sen. Williams, who is minority chair of the state Senate Education Committee, said the launch was “about mobilizing educators, school staff, parents and everyone in the community who cares about public education in this country.”
For many teachers, Sen. Williams said, the pandemic pause on student loan payments — which began during former President Donald Trump’s administration — and the recent loan forgiveness initiatives were the only ways they could afford to remain in their classrooms.
First lady and teacher Jill Biden launched the national Educators for Biden-Harris initiative April 19 in Minnesota, joined by the presidents of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The two national teachers’ unions, which have already endorsed President Joe Biden, have nearly five million combined members with local affiliates in all 50 states.
As part of its student loan debt forgiveness initiatives, the Biden administration in March announced it would forgive about $6 billion in student loan debt for 78,000 public service workers including teachers, nurses and social workers.
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Philadelphia earlier this month to tout a new round of student debt forgiveness from the administration, and spoke with educators who described how having their loans canceled had changed their lives for the better.
VP Kamala Harris in Philadelphia to tout Biden administration’s latest student debt relief proposal
To date, the Biden administration has canceled or forgiven a total of $144 billion in student loan debt for more than 4 billion borrowers, Harris said.
Campaigns’ education plans
Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president, has criticized the Biden administration’s student debt relief efforts, calling them “very, very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work.”
On his campaign website under a “Protect Parents Rights” section, Trump outlines his education plan if he wins another term, which includes “reward[ing] states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure for grades K-12 and adopt Merit Pay, cut the number of school administrators, adopt a Parental Bill of Rights, and implement the direct election of school principals by the parents.”
Under his 2025 budget request, Biden proposes $12 billion to “fund strategies to lower college costs for students,” according to a White House fact sheet accompanying the budget request. And during his 2024 State of the Union address in March, Biden echoed an earlier call to increase pay for public school teachers.
Valerie Williams said she ultimately left her teaching position and took a full-time role with her second job for better benefits and pay. “I still think about those children and their families and how frustrating it was to have to make that call,” she said Friday. “If I’d been making more money and had the benefits I needed, I would have been able to stay at the job I loved so much.”
Pennsylvania
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PHOENIXVILLE − May 10, 2024 – State Senator Katie Muth (D-Chester/Montgomery/Berks), chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee, joined Sen. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) and Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny) today in Phoenixville to co-host a public hearing examining challenges faced by owners of newly built homes in Pennsylvania and the lack of protections for these residents in state and local laws.
“As a new homeowner living in a newly constructed neighborhood, being a first-time home buyer and owner has been challenging and a major eye opener. I’ve learned that this struggle extends far beyond my neighborhood, with others living in SD44 and across the state who are experiencing similar or even worse situations,” Muth said. “So many Pennsylvanians put their life savings into what they think is a dream home – but they end up living a very expensive and very stressful nightmare. Today’s hearing highlighted many consumer issues, and how lack of enforcement and accountability harm residents all across this state – as well as the weaknesses in state laws which allow builders and developers to financially deceive buyers. All levels of government need to step up and make the necessary changes to laws and regulations to ensure consistent oversight and enforcement. Further, it’s clear that skilled labor and skilled workers is imperative in ensuring quality homes are built.”
The hearing, held at the Phoenixville Borough Building in Chester County, featured two panels of testimony. The first panel included two impacted residents who have each dealt with several construction and water issues in their newly constructed homes. The second panel focused on code enforcement and inspection issues in the construction industry.
“As a realtor, I understand the devastating impact it can have on a family when a new home construction or a remodel project isn’t completed as anticipated or promised,” Fontana said. “This hearing provided me with some valuable input regarding what is working and what needs some adjustments in terms of licensure, Pennsylvania’s laws and the role the different state agencies play.”
According to testimony provided by Marc Faulkner, a trained electrician and owner of a certified inspection company, there is no requirement for a contractor to be licensed in their selected trade and requirement by the state for the licensing of plumbers, framers, HVAC, or even electricians.
“Housing stability affects all aspects of our lives—our families, our work, our health, and our communities. Many people look to homeownership as the best way to achieve this essential stability only to find out that the new home they’ve used all their resources to purchase is putting them in danger,” Saval added. “As we begin to engage seriously with the real and pressing supply problem in Pennsylvania’s residential housing sector, we also need to protect residents from dangerous practices that add stress to our lives and erode community cohesion.”
The Committee is also continuing to seek resident input and is asking Pennsylvania residents living in any county, in newly constructed homes to fill out a brief survey about their experiences as an owner of a newly constructed home in Pennsylvania. The survey responses will remain anonymous and will only be used to help inform Committee members of the challenges being faced by so many Pennsylvanians who were sold on the promise of a newly constructed home only to deal with issues of poor workmanship and unreliable contractors after moving in. The survey results will also ensure that any proposed policies address all the challenges in new home construction statewide. The survey can be accessed at bit.ly/SenDemPolicyHomeSurvey.
Participants in the hearing included two former Philadelphia residents, Megan Murray and Peggy Jackson who have had significant issues in their own newly constructed homes; John Abel, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General; Marc Faulkner, Faulkner Inspection Services; and Warren Obenski, Honey Brook Township Manager.
Senator Tim Kearney (D-Delaware) and Senator Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) also participated in the hearing virtually.
The Policy Committee did invite several builders to testify at the hearing but all declined participation.
For more information on this policy hearing and to access all submitted testimony and a full recording of today’s hearing, visit www.SenatorMuth.com/policy.
# # #
Testimony
Panel 1: Homeowners
Panel 2: Code Enforcement
Additional
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