Jesse Topper, the incoming Pennsylvania House Republican Leader, said that the recent statewide assessment results from the Pennsylvania Department of Education show that “transformational change is needed in Pennsylvania’s system of education to achieve meaningful improvement.”

Statewide assessment scores have been lagging behind pre-COVID results.

Education should always be a priority. There were obviously going to be negative impacts from the pandemic, but now it’s time to start moving in the right direction again. 

We hope that Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Republican-controlled State Senate, and Democrat-controlled State House can work together to prioritize education and do what’s necessary for students to show “meaningful improvement” on statewide assessments. The goal should be improvement each and every year.