1 1 2 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3 APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE 4 MAIN CAPITOL 5 ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA 6 7 BUDGET HEARING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 8 9 MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017 10:14 A.M. 10 11 BEFORE: HONORABLE STANLEY SAYLOR, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN 12 HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK 13 HONORABLE SHERYL DELOZIER HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR 14 HONORABLE GARTH EVERETT HONORABLE KEITH GREINER 15 HONORABLE SETH GROVE HONORABLE MARCIA HAHN 16 HONORABLE SUE HELM HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF 17 HONORABLE FRED KELLER HONORABLE JERRY KNOWLES 18 HONORABLE NICK MICCARELLI HONORABLE DUANE MILNE 19 HONORABLE JASON ORTITAY HONORABLE MIKE PEIFER 20 HONORABLE JEFF PYLE HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN 21 HONORABLE BRAD ROAE HONORABLE JAMIE SANTORA 22 HONORABLE CURT SONNEY HONORABLE KEVIN BOYLE 23 HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS 24 25 2 1 BEFORE (continued): 2 HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY 3 HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI 4 HONORABLE MARTY FLYNN HONORABLE EDWARD GAINEY 5 HONORABLE PATTY KI M HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY 6 HONORABLE LEANNE KRUEGER-BRANEKY HONORABLE MIKE O'BRIEN 7 HONORABLE MARK ROZZI HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER 8 NON-COMMI TTEE MEMBERS: 9 HONORABLE CRIS DUSH HONORABLE MARK GILLEN 10 HONORABLE RON MARSICO HONORABLE ERIC NELSON 11 HONORABLE KRISTIN PHILLIPS-HILL HONORABLE RICK SACCONE 12 HONORABLE CRIAG STAATS HONORABLE WILL TALLMAN 13 HONORABLE STEVE MCCARTER HONORABLE ED NEILSON 14 HONORABLE EDDIE DAY PASHINSKI HONORABLE JAMES R. ROEBUCK 15 HONORABLE MIKE SCHLOSSBERG HONORABLE W. CURTIS THOMAS 16 17 COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: DAVID DONLEY, MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 18 RITCHIE LaFAVER, MAJORITY DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MIRIAM FOX, DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 19 TARA TREES, DEMOCRATIC CHIEF COUNSEL 20 21 22 23 BRENDA J. PARDUN, RPR P. O. BOX 278 24 MAYTOWN, PA 17550 717-940-6528 25 3 1 INDEX 2 NAME PAGE 3 PEDRO RIVERA 8 SECRETARY 4 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 5 WIL DEL PILAR 31 DEPUTY SECRETARY 6 OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY & HIGHER EDUCATION 7 PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 8 GLENN MILLER 37 DEPUTY SECRETARY 9 OFFICE OF COMMONWEALTH LIBRARIES PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 10 DANIELLE MARIANO 98 11 DIRECTOR BUREAU OF BUDGET & FISCAL MANAGEMENT 12 PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 13 MATT STEM 125 DEPUTY SECRETARY 14 OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION 15 PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 16 SUSANN MORRIS 135 DEPUTY SECRETARY 17 OFFICE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT & EARLY LEARNING 18 PA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Good morning, 3 everyone. Happy Monday. 4 I wanted to remind everybody in the room 5 to either turn off your cell phones or put them On 6 silent. 7 Also, Mr. Secretary and your staff, if you 8 would, make sure that when you speak you speak 9 right into the microphone so that they can pick 10 that up. 11 I think I'll start off this morning by 12 introducing our committee, and then we'll talk 13 about our guests. 14 I’ll start off. Chairman of -- yeah, 15 chairman of the Education Committee, how quickly I 16 forget -- Stan Saylor. I’m from York County, and 17 chairman of the Appropriations Committee. 18 MR. DONLEY: Hi, Dave Donley, Republican 19 staff executive director to the committee. 20 REPRESENTATIVE DUNBAR: Good morning. 21 Representative George Dunbar, Westmoreland County, 22 56th District. 23 REPRESENTATIVE QUINN: Good morning. I’m 24 Marguerite Quinn, from the 143rd District, which is 25 parts of central and upper Bucks County. 5 1 REPRESENTATIVE KAMPF: I’m Warren Kampf, 2 from the 157th District, in Chester and Montgomery 3 counties. 4 REPRESENTATIVE GREINER: Keith Greiner, 5 43rd District, Lancaster County. 6 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Good morning, 7 Mr. Secretary. Fred Keller, 85th District, Snyder 8 and Union. 9 REPRESENTATIVE ROAE: Brad Roae, Crawford 10 County and Erie County. 11 REPRESENTATIVE EVERETT: Garth Everett, 12 Lycoming and Union. 13 REPRESENTATIVE ORTITAY: Jason Ortitay, 14 46th District, Allegheny and Washington. 15 REPRESENTATIVE GROVE: Representative Seth 16 Grove, York County, 196th District. 17 Good to see you again, Secretary. 18 REPRESENTATIVE SONNEY: Curt Sonney, 4th 19 Legislative District, Erie County. Good morning. 20 REPRESENTATIVE SANTORA: Good morning. 21 Jamie Santora, 163rd District, Delaware County. 22 REPRESENTATIVE HAHN: Good morning. 23 Marcia Hahn, 138th District, Northampton County. 24 REPRESENTATIVE PEIFER: Good morning. 25 Mike Peifer, 139th District, Pike and Wayne 6 1 counties. 2 REPRESENTATIVE KNOWLES: Jerry Knowles, 3 124th District, which includes portions of Berks, 4 Carbon, and Schuylkill counties. 5 REPRESENTATIVE DELOZIER: Good morning. 6 Sheryl Delozier, Cumberland County, 88th District. 7 REPRESENTATIVE MILNE: Good morning. 8 Duane Milne, 167th District, Chester County. 9 REPRESENTATIVE HELM: Sue Helm, 104th, 10 Dauphin and Lebanon County. 11 REPRESENTATIVE BOBACK: Karen Boback, 12 House District 117, Luzerne, Lackawanna, and 13 Wyoming counties. Good morning. 14 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Good morning. 15 Joe Markosek, 25th Legislative District, Allegheny 16 County, and the chairman of the Democratic 17 Appropriations Committee. 18 MS. FOX: Hi. Miriam Fox, executive 19 Director for committee Democrats. 20 REPRESENTATIVE ROEBUCK: Good morning. 21 Jim Roebuck, 188th Legislative District, Democratic 22 chair, House Education Committee. 23 REPRESENTATIVE DEAN: Good morning, 24 Mr. Secretary. Madeleine Dean, 153rd, Montgomery 25 County. 7 1 REPRESENTATIVE KRUEGER-BRANEKY: Leanna 2 Krueger-Braneky, 161st District, Delaware County. 3 REPRESENTATIVE BOYLE: Good morning. 4 Kevin Boyle, Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. 5 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Good morning. 6 Maria Donatucci, 185th District, Philadelphia and 7 Delaware County. 8 REPRESENTATIVE DALEY: Good morning. Mary 9 Jo Daley, 148th District, in Montgomery County. 10 REPRESENTATIVE BRIGGS: Good morning. Tim 11 Briggs, Montgomery County, 149th District. 12 REPRESENTATIVE ROZZI: Good morning. Mark 13 Rozzi, 126th District, Berks County. 14 REPRESENTATIVE SCHWEYER: Good morning. 15 Peter Schweyer, 22nd Legislative District, Lehigh 16 County, city of Allentown. 17 REPRESENTATIVE KIM: Hi. Patty Kim, 103rd 18 District, city of Harrisburg. 19 REPRESENTATIVE FLYNN: Representative 20 Marty Flynn, 113th District, Lackawanna County. 21 REPRESENTATIVE BULLOCK: Good morning. 22 Representative Donna Bullock, Philadelphia County, 23 195 District. 24 REPRESENTATIVE GAINEY: Good morning. Ed 25 Gainey. I represent the city of Pittsburgh in 8 1 Allegheny County, 24th Legislative District. 2 REPRESENTATIVE KINSEY: Good morning. 3 S t ephen Ki ns ey, Philadelphia County, 201st 4 Legislative District. 5 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: We've been 6 joined by several other members who are guests 7 today: Representative Pashinski, Representative 8 Schlossberg, Representative McCarter, 9 Representative Tallman, Representative Saccone, 10 Representative Staats, Representative 11 Phillips-Hill. 12 With that, Mr. Secretary, would you and 13 all your staff who is going to be testifying today 14 please rise and raise your right hand? 15 PEDRO RIVERA, 16 DANIELLE MARIANO, 17 GLENN MILLER, 18 WIL DEL PILAR, 19 were duly sworn by Majority Chairman Saylor. 20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Thank you. You 21 may be seated. 22 Mr. Secretary, do you have any brief 23 comments or anything before we start. 24 SECRETARY RIVERA: If I can, thank you, 25 Mr. Chairman. 9 1 I want to take a brief moment to introduce 2 the members of my team. Joining me up here today, 3 we have, to my left, Danielle Mariano, director of 4 the Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management; to my 5 right, Dr. Wil Del Pilar, deputy secretary of the 6 Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education; and 7 to my far right, Glenn Miller, deputy secretary of 8 the Office of Commonwealth Libraries. 9 I’m not going to take too much time 10 sharing around any specifics, but we’ll try our 11 best to be as concise and direct as possible. If 12 any clarifying statements are needed, please feel 13 free to do so, but I want to make sure to maximize 14 our time today with the committee. 15 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Very good. 16 I’ll start off with a short statement 17 here. You know, providing a quality education to 18 our children is one of the most important roles 19 that we play here in state government. It’s 20 something that many in this room, on both sides of 21 the aisle, are passionate about. And I mean 22 passionate about. 23 And the job of this committee is to 24 evaluate the details of the governor’s budget 25 proposal in order to more effectively evaluate its 10 1 merit. And when it comes to education, there are 2 many details I think we're probably still missing 3 yet. And in years past, governors have laid our 4 their visions on what they want education to be. 5 This year, the proposal seems to be mainly 6 focused on increasing or decreasing certain 7 specific line items. And during this committee, we 8 want to hear from you, Mr. Secretary, about how 9 these steep cuts to people transportation will be 10 implemented, what their plan for charter schools 11 is, and how you envision the advancing career and 12 technical education, and what initiatives that are 13 planned to save this Commonwealth and the school 14 districts money while providing more quality and 15 effective education for Pennsylvania students. 16 While we know more money cannot be the 17 only answer to solving the challenges facing our 18 education system, our caucus is open to increased 19 spending in education, but it must be coupled with 20 real reforms that will improve the lives of our 21 students. 22 The status quo is not working for many 23 Pennsylvania families, and we must be willing to be 24 innovative and restructure education in order to 25 meet demands of the 21st century.