Erie is tired of waiting for its community college

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Ed Mahon / PA Post

A sign left behind in the state Capitol by supporters of placing a new community college in Erie on Nov. 13, 2019.

Frustration as Board of Ed panel urges more review

Ed Mahon / PA Post

A sign left behind in the state Capitol by supporters of placing a new community college in Erie on Nov. 13, 2019. (Ed Mahon / PA Post)

• Pennsylvania has 14 community colleges. Most were established in the 1960s and early 1970s. Community and business leaders in Erie say they need one of their own in order to lift people out of poverty, meet the workforce development needs of employers, and help boost the area’s economy.

• But on Wednesday, a committee for the state Board of Education declined to endorse Erie’s community college proposal, saying more information is needed before the full board can make a decision.

• Ron DiNicola, an attorney and community college booster, was disappointed with the decision. When the full state board of education meets today, he plans to encourage them to proceed with a vote on Erie’s plan. “We’ve been here two years on this issue. We’ve presented reams of information,” DiNicola told me.

• Several dozen people from Erie made the trip to Harrisburg to see what the committee would do Wednesday. One of them was GoErie reporter Matthew Rink. You can read his coverage here.

• GoErie’s editorial board says approving the community college is the fair thing to do. “Erie County, whose taxpayers have helped pay for the other 14 colleges for decades, is seeking to give its residents access to the same level of educational offerings and the same state financial support long accorded every other population center in the state,” the board wrote.

• The last community college to receive approval was Cambria County’s Pennsylvania Highlands, which opened in 1994. That college recently suspended its president after some recent social media posts that The Tribune-Democrat said “could be considered controversial.”

• In other community college news, make sure you check out Spotlight PA reporter Aneri Pattani’s ongoing coverage of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, and its decision to eliminate mental health counseling across its five campuses.

Best of the rest

Ed Mahon / PA Post

People look at one of the options for a new voting system during a demonstration at Susquehanna Township High School in Dauphin County on June 11, 2019.

• Dauphin County commissioners say they won’t comply with the state’s paper-ballot mandate for voting machines, FOX43 reports. It will be interesting to see how Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration responds — and if others counties try a similar tactic. Most counties, as Emily Previti has documented, already have either purchased and deployed their new machines, or have contracts signed and plans in place to comply by the April 2020 primary. AP reporter Marc Levy points out “no other county in Pennsylvania has taken such a hard line against getting new voting machines.”

• LNP has story that lives up to its headline: “7 things you might not know about Lancaster County’s Lincoln Highway, America’s first toll road.” I don’t think I knew any of the facts, including that people who dodged tolls were called “shunpikers” or that it was the first toll road. The story has lots of cool, old timey photos.

• A crash in the state’s unemployment compensation system kept people from filing certain claims, WITF’s Katie Meyer reports. “We’re trying to make it right,” Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said. “I mean, it was our fault.”

• The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari covered the first day of public impeachment hearings Wednesday, and he reports that Montgomery County Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, watched from the audience. Before the hearings started, The Morning Call published the results of its latest poll (with Muhlenberg College) showing that 51 percent of Pennsylvanians support impeachment, with 47 percent opposed. That’s not too far off from what Franklin & Marshall’s poll found a few weeks back.

• State Rep. Brandon Markosek, D-Allegheny County, was arrested in September for DUI. Reports say Markosek was pulled over for speeding and the arresting officer reported detecting an alcohol smell. Later, a blood alcohol test showed Markosek to be under the legal limit, and his attorney now expects the charge to be dismissed. PennLive has a story, as well as ABC 27 News.