The Pennsylvania Project is an online reference source designed to provide user-friendly information on Pennsylvania public school budgets and union contract negotiations. For example, if you want to know how salary schedules work, what equalized mills means, or when the Taj Mahal Act was passed, click on a highlighted link. If you already know, or couldn’t care less, you can just keep reading. (For a current entry list, see below.)
The Pennsylvania Project is part of a searchable website maintained by the Sunshine Review, a national transparency initiative. The project sponsor is The Commonwealth Foundation. If you enter via the Sunshine Review’s Pennsylvania portal, you’ll find material on schools on the right-hand side of the page under “Transparency Checkpoints.” A more direct entry point is Pennsylvania public school overview, where transparency issues are discussed the context of public school budgets.
Please keep in mind that Sunshine Review is a “wiki” like Wikipedia and encourages user participation. Readers like yourself can edit, expand or amend its entries. You can correct factual errors and offer dissenting points of view on controversial issues. You must log on to edit, a step that protects the wiki against spam, off-topic posts and other abuses. But the level of reader participation enabled by this open format provides a sharp contrast to closed websites developed by state agencies, school districts, and special-interest groups to promote only their own viewpoints.
The Pennsylvania Project is designed for general citizen participation with special attention to reporters on deadline. Reporters are especially invited to suggest new topics to fred@schoolboardtransparency.org.
A list of Pennsylvania Project entries (last updated March 9, 2009)
Pennsylvania Project – main section headings
Pennsylvania public school overview
Pennsylvania School Board Transparency
Pennsylvania school districts
Pennsylvania school spending
Pennsylvania Laws
Pennsylvania Act 195 (1970)
Pennsylvania Act 34 (1973) (Taj Mahal Act)
Pennsylvania Act 88 (1992)
Pennsylvania Act 1 (2006) )
Pennsylvania Right to Know Law (2009)
Definitions (with some explanatory comments)
backend referendum
checkbook register
contract duration
copayment
deductible
early bird contract settlement
equalized mill
fair share
fund balance
maintenance of membership
membership dues deduction
merit pay
mill
retroactivity
salary schedule
seniority
skill-based pay
step compaction
step freeze
union rights
Transparency issues (with explanatory comments)
Collective bargaining, contrasts between public and private sector
Evaluation of Pennsylvania school district websites
Media guide to negotiations issues
Pennsylvania school board and union negotiations
School transparency checklist
Public agencies (state and local)
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry
Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board
Pennsylvania Office of Open Records
Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board
School districts
(500 links, alphabetized)
Private organizations
AFT Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Foundation
Pennsylvania School Boards Association
Pennsylvania State Education Association
