On today’s program: A look at how K-12 schools might benefit from the $300 million increase allocated in the state budget; David Hickton of the new Pitt Disinformation Lab explains how disinformation is being spread online in an effort to divide the public; and Dawn Keezer with the Pittsburgh Film Office says film production is making a strong comeback this summer and fall.
Pennsylvania state budget sees increases in K-12 funding
(0:00 - 7:21)
Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a budget that includes a $300 million increase for K-12 schools.
“The governor wanted $1.3 billion more for education for K-12 schools, which would have been a huge increase for Pennsylvania, and yet still far short of what many public education advocates say the state needs,” says Maddie Hanna, who reports on K-12 education for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
This round of funding also relies on one-time injections of funds for Pennsylvania’s 100 poorest school districts to try and make up for what was lost during the pandemic.
“There's a formula in place to try to steer more money to those schools, but it only applies to whatever new spending the state puts into education each year, dating back to 2016,” says Hanna. “The vast majority of what school districts in Pennsylvania get is based on historic appropriations of state money, so this effort this year was to try to say, ‘Hey, we're trying to get more money to these school districts with the greatest needs.’”
The formula bases school funding on a number of factors, including student count, the percentage of students living in poverty, and the school district’s ability to generate local tax revenue.
“Part of the reason for the increase in spending [Wolf] was proposing was that if you run all the money through this formula, you're going to have some districts that would be potentially losing out,” explains Hanna. “So, Wolf was proposing to both run all the state money through this formula and also spend this extra money to make sure that no school district lost money.”
Republicans, she says, worry about overspending on K-12 education and wanted to put more money toward scholarships that would allow parents to send their children to private schools.
Pitt’s new lab wants to help people fight the online spread of disinformation
(7:22 - 15:52)
The University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security launched thePitt Disinformation Lab to detect and respond to malicious influences online.
"The goal is to create local resilience and not wait for the policymakers in Washington to deal with the big tech side of this by creating procedures and regulations, but to take steps right here and right now," says David Hickton, the founder and director of the institute.
Hickton says he wants to equip internet users with tools that allow them to, "subject information they receive on a daily basis to the necessary scrutiny that they would subject it to if they were meeting a person on the street."
He says that disinformation online can be particularly hard to address because of people’s trust of what they see online.
"For some reason, people give greater credence to something they hear on the internet than they would if they read it in a publication or if someone had said it to them in a conversation," says Hickton.
The lab will run simulations on how organizations can debunk it, create a dashboard that helps users identify it and create training modules for online moderators.
Pittsburgh’s film industry is making a comeback
(15:56 - 22:30)
Arts and entertainment in the Pittsburgh region are rebounding from the pandemic. That includes those who work in film and television production in the Pittsburgh region.
“We’re busier than we’ve ever been, thankfully,” says Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. “We have 19 projects that would like to film in Southwestern Pennsylvania between now and the fall. I have six projects that are here in Pittsburgh right now, in various stages of production.”
Keezer says the industry went still in March of 2020, when pandemic restrictions initially sent production crews home.
“They determined ways to have a safe pathway forward, which then put everybody back to work starting in September,” says Keezer. She says productions developed COVID-19 testing protocols and other systems to keep sets and other in-person work safe.
As of 2019, Keezer says there were 20,000 people working full-time in the film industry throughout the state, and she estimates there are 8,000 people based in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“There’s a pent up demand for content,” says Keezer. She predicts the industry will continue to produce content for home-streaming. “I think everybody’s evolving, and I think the film industry’s going to evolve right along with it.”
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in weekdays at 9 a.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
