

















































Commonwealth: A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy Frontmatter


COMMONWEAL
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and P

TH
olicy

 
 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University

 BOOK REVIEW EDITOR/    

 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
  
 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Michelle J. Atherton, Temple University
 Christopher Borick, Muhlenberg College
 Paula Holoviak, Kutztown University
 Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., Temple University

 EDITORIAL ADVISORY 
 BOARD Bruce Caswell, Rowan University
 Beverly A. Cigler, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
 Richardson Dilworth, Drexel University
 John J. Kennedy, West Chester University
 John Kincaid, Lafayette College
 David Y. Miller, University of Pittsburgh
 Joseph Marbach, Georgian Court University
 Megan Mullin, Duke University
 Richard A. Stafford, Carnegie Mellon University

 COPY EDITOR  Barbara Crawford

 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Nicole Crossey, Widener University

 FOUNDING EDITOR 

 EMERITUS Donald G. Tannenbaum, Gettysburg College

 EDITORS EMERITUS Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University
  Gerard J. Fitzpatrick, Ursinus College

Published by Temple University Press on behalf of  
The Pennsylvania Political Science Association

COMMONWEALTH, Volume 18, Issue 1 (June 2016). © 2016 The Pennsylvania Political Science Association. 
ISSN 2469-7672 (online). http://dx.doi.org/10.15367/cjppp.v18i1.78. All rights reserved.



THE PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2015–2016

PRESIDENT FIRST VICE PRESIDENT SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
Christopher Borick Steven Peterson  Lanethea Mathews-Schultz
Muhlenberg College Pennsylvania State University,  Muhlenberg College
 Harrisburg   

TREASURER  SECRETARY 
Steven B. Lem  Paula Holoviak
Kutztown University  Kutztown University

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

2013–2016  2014–2017   2015–2018

Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr. Michelle DeMary   Michelle J. Atherton
Temple University  Susquehanna University  Temple University

Ayesha Ray  Kyle Kreider   Michael Greenberg
King’s College   Wilkes University  Shippensburg University

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS

PAST PRESIDENT  PAST PRESIDENT
Brooke Harlowe  Stanley Berard
Lock Haven University  Lock Haven University

EDITORIAL STAFF OF COMMONWEALTH:  
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF  ASSOCIATE EDITOR & BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
J. Wesley Leckrone  Thomas J. Baldino
Widener University  Wilkes University

EDITOR EMERITUS  FOUNDING EDITOR EMERITUS 
Gerard J. Fitzpatrick  Donald G. Tannenbaum
Ursinus College  Gettysburg College



Pennsylvania Policy Forum

COMMONWEALTH collaborates with the Pennsylvania Policy Forum 
to plan special issues and attract high-quality content to the journal. 
The Forum is a consortium of faculty members and academic and 

policy institute leaders from Pennsylvania colleges and universities who share 
an interest in generating ideas, analyses, and symposiums that might prove 
useful to citizens, elected officials, and civic leaders in addressing major issues 
confronting the Commonwealth and its local governments. As educators who 
have helped train students for careers in public policy, members also share an 
interest in helping to improve the skills, knowledge, and tools of leaders in the 
public and civic sectors.

Members of the Forum have expertise in not only public policy analysis but 
also a wide range of substantive issues, including but not limited to education, 
transportation and public infrastructure, economic development, agriculture, 
energy, elections, water policy and the environment, health care, social policy, 
urban development, emergency management, information technology, public 
finance, and constitutional law. Members also share an interest in improving 
both the policy process and the institutional structures through which issues 
and problems are addressed.

Forum members have contributed to public policy debates in Pennsyl-
vania, and a number have also served in state and local government and in 
nonprofit and civic organizations that engage in policy development and 
implementation. Some members of the Forum are associated with other 
academic and public policy–related organizations, but the Forum itself is 
independent of these relationships and has no formal connections to any 
government entity. Members clearly benefit from the intellectual resources 
and environments of their universities, but unless otherwise indicated they do 
not act on behalf of their institutions when they sponsor Forum projects. The 
premise of the Forum is that through the consortium, members can jointly 
develop and sponsor nonpartisan research, symposiums, and education and 
training programs of value to elected officials, civic leaders, and the public and 
thereby enhance their ability to contribute to more intelligent and informed 
policy making.



PENNSYLVANIA POLICY FORUM  

MEMBERSHIP (2016)

Theodore R. Alter, professor of agricultural, environmental, and regional 
economics, Pennsylvania State University

Michelle J. Atherton, associate director, Institute for Public Affairs, Temple 
University

Thomas J. Baldino, professor of political science, Wilkes University
Michael Cassidy, adjunct instructor of political science, Temple University
Beverly A. Cigler, professor of public policy and administration, Pennsylvania 

State University, Harrisburg
Richardson Dilworth, associate professor of political science and director of 

the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University
Michael R. Dimino, Sr., associate professor of law, Widener University 

Commonwealth Law School
(Chair) Paula Holoviak, professor of political science, Kutztown University
John J. Kennedy, associate professor of political science, West Chester 

University
Michael King, adjunct professor, Albright College and Temple University, and 

associate professor, Pennsylvania State University (retired)
Robin Lauermann, professor of politics and international relations, Messiah 

College
(Vice Chair) Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., director of the Institute for Public 

Affairs, Temple University
David Y. Miller, associate professor and director of the Innovation Clinic, 

Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of 
Pittsburgh

Randall M. Miller, professor of history, St. Joseph’s University
Theresa Miller, director, Institute of Politics, University of Pittsburgh 
Joseph Sabino Mistick, associate professor of law, Duquesne University School 

of Law
Richard A. Stafford, distinguished service professor of public policy, Heinz 

College, Carnegie Mellon University
David B. Thornburgh, executive director of the Committee of 70
Craig Wheeland, associate vice president for academic affairs and professor, 

Villanova University



Contents
Volume 18, Number 1 | June 2016 | ISSN 2469-7672

■ About the Authors
 
■ COMMONWEALTH Matters | J. Wesley Leckrone, Editor-in-Chief

■  An Introduction to the Special Issue on Education Policy 
| Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., and Michelle J. Atherton

■  COMMONWEALTH Forum: Should Pennsylvania Abolish  
the Property Tax for Schools?

 Y es, Abolish the Property Tax: It is the Worst Tax for Schools 
| David G. Argall and Jon Hopcraft

 No, Keep the Proper ty Tax: It is the Best Tax for Schools 
| William A. Fischel

■  What Would Student-Based Allocation Mean for Pennsylvania 
School Districts? | Marguerite Roza and Amanda Warco

■  Higher Standards and Lower Achievement? An Evaluation  
of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Exams | Adam McGlynn

■  More Trouble Ahead for Public School Finance:  
The Implications of Generational Change in Pennsylvania  
| Maureen W. McClure and Vera Krekanova

■  Special Education Funding in Pennsylvania: The Effects  
of a Policy of Neglect | William T. Hartman

■  The Education Policy Bookshelf: An Annotated Bibliography  
of Selected Studies | Meghan E. Rubado



About the Authors

David G. Argall is a member of the Pennsylvania Senate and chair of the Senate 
Republican Policy Committee. 

Michelle J. Atherton is the associate director of Temple University’s Institute 
for Public Affairs and coeditor of the Special Issue on Education of COMMON-
WEALTH: A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy.

William A. Fischel is a professor of economics and Hardy Professor of Legal 
Studies at Dartmouth College. 

William T. Hartman is a professor of education in the College of Education at 
Pennsylvania State University and a cofounder and executive director of the Cen-
ter for Total Quality Schools at Penn State.

Jon Hopcraft is the director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

Vera Krekanova is the director of strategy and research for the Three Rivers 
Workforce Investment Board.

Maureen W. McClure is an associate professor of administrative and policy stud-
ies and senior research associate at the International Institute for Studies in Edu-
cation in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Adam McGlynn is an associate professor of political science at East Stroudsburg 
University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr., is the director of Temple University’s Institute for Pub-
lic Affairs and coeditor of the Special Issue on Education of COMMONWEALTH: 
A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy.

Marguerite Roza is the director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University 
and a senior research affiliate at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. 

Meghan E. Rubado is a graduate assistant at Temple University’s Center on 
Regional Politics, housed within the Institute for Public Affairs, and a PhD can-
didate in Temple’s Department of Political Science.

Amanda Warco is a research associate in the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown Uni-
versity.




