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Schools, child care legislation advances in Pennsylvania as lawmakers try to move past budget feud

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Schools, child care legislation advances in Pennsylvania as lawmakers try to move past budget feud


The bill also would boost the amount of tax credits — from $12 million to $60 million — for donations that go to private schools that serve a larger proportion of students from lower-income families.

Public school advocates have criticized the program as discriminatory, saying many of the eligible schools cherry-pick the students they want to teach and have policies that discriminate on the basis of religion, LGBTQ+ status, disability or another reason.

They also say it siphons money away from public schools at a time when a landmark court decision found that the state’s system of school funding is violating the constitutional rights of students in the state’s poorest districts

Awaiting a vote Wednesday night was legislation with a key concession to Democrats, an expansion of a year-old state child care and dependent tax credit.

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The bill would raise the current child care tax credit from 30% to 100% of the federal child care and dependent tax credit, at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the state.

The size of the child care tax credit is based on income, but the biggest tax credit would be $2,100 — instead of $630, under current state law — for families making below $43,000 and spending $6,000 or more on child care for two children.

That bill also carries another win for Democrats: $175 million in one-time aid to clean up lead, asbestos, mold and other environmental health hazards in school buildings.

Meanwhile, the bill headed to Shapiro’s desk allows hundreds of millions of dollars to flow after spending months snarled in the Legislature.

That includes more than $300 million for libraries and community colleges, and $100 million in federal aid for school mental health services.

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To encourage more college students to become teachers, the bill would create a program to give a stipend of up to $15,000 to student teachers. With numerous schools having difficulty hiring or retaining teachers, the stipends are aimed at easing a hardship for college students finishing up a teaching degree who each must student-teach in schools for 12 weeks without pay.



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Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes

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Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes


Planned Parenthood PA Advocates executive director Signe Espinoza called the proposal “an enormous shift toward control over our bodies.”

“We must have control over if and when we decide to start our families, but Pennsylvania has for too long allowed loopholes, exemptions and oversights to stand between us and our autonomy,” Espinoza said in a statement.

Rep. Krueger said in an interview Monday that she also was concerned about Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion access two years ago. Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including cases that found married people have the right to obtain contraceptives, people can engage in private, consensual sex acts and the right to same-sex marriage.

A state law could help people obtain contraceptives if federal law changes, Krueger said.

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“We have seen that access to reproductive health care, including contraception, is coming down to a state’s rights issue,” Krueger said.

In other states, contraception has been a politically contentious issue. A review earlier this month by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion access, found several states have proposed or enacted laws to reduce access to contraception this year.

KFF, a nonprofit that studies health care issues, said in May that 14 states have legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception, with six states and Washington, D.C., enacting them since the high court’s decision on abortion in June 2022.



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Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d

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Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d


A 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman drowned after being swept over a waterfall on the east side of Glacier National Park in Montana, park officials said.

National Park Service officials on Tuesday identified the victim as Gillian Tones from North Apollo in western Pennsylvania’s Armstrong County. She was remembered as caring and kind, triblive.com reported.

Tones fell into the water above St. Mary Falls at around 5:20 p.m. Sunday. She was washed over the 35-foot (11-meter) tall waterfall and trapped under water for several minutes, the park said in a statement.

Bystanders pulled Tones from the water and administered CPR until emergency responders arrived. She was declared dead at 7 p.m., park officials said.

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The death is under investigation, and an autopsy was planned.

Her name was initially withheld until family members could be notified.

Drowning is one of the leading causes of death in Glacier National Park, according to the National Park Service.

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Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT

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Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT


RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — Conestoga Road in Radnor Township will have a weekday closure due to Aqua Pennsylvania work for about two months, PennDOT said.

According to PennDOT, a weekday closure is scheduled on Conestoga Road between Lowrys Lane and Glenbrook Avenue in Radnor.

The closure will be in place weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday, July 1 to Friday, Aug. 30,

During the closure, drivers will be detoured, using Sproul Road/Route 320, Lancaster Avenue/U.S. 30, and County Line Road.

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Local access will be maintained up to the work zone.

Drivers are advised to allow extra time when traveling through or near the work area because backups and delays will occur.

All scheduled activities are weather dependent.



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