During Pennsylvania state budget season, lobbyists put equal effort into protecting appropriations that clients support, advocating for lawmakers to fund new or expanded programs and, sometimes, working to prevent spending that runs counter to clients’ interests.
A boon and a bane to lobbyists, conversations on Twitter can be turned into a tool to reveal relationships, supporters and opponents, and to build coalitions. But it’s a time-consuming process to locate and follow the connections made among every tweet for or against. Fortunately, Paraqeet does it for you.
While Twitter’s budget-related conversations are really just getting started at this point in the year, a Paraqeet search of these topics — the Pennsylvania budget, charter schools and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI — highlights what conversations are forming and who might be making what argument later in June.
Casting a wide net with a Paraqeet search of PAbudget to find all users, mentions, quotes and replies in the month leading up to May 25 shows conversation buzzing around a story on cyber charter school spending topping $1 billion this year. The No. 1 influencer with that story was LEARN-PA, a group of public school superintendents advocating for fair education funding and charter reform.
Another popular post was made by an official with the Philadelphia DA’s office after the Senate Democratic Appropriations chairman projected a $1 billion surplus. The tweet called for state investments in public education, health and violence prevention.
These same two topics are top hits when the search is filtered to show only retweets that can demonstrate loyal support of a tweet. In this case, the charter funding story shows support from Pennsylvania School Boards Association members, educators, school board members and public education advocates, while the budget surplus suggestions were retweeted by housing and anti-violence advocates, clergy and a Democratic strategist.
Paraqeet users can drill down even further by adding a verified user filter, which includes only groups or people of public importance. With all of those filters on, it’s clear we’re still in the early budget talk stages, with posts from PCN and lawmakers encouraging viewers to learn about the budget on a call-in show and Senate Democrats and the House GOP urging users to check out their budget and revenue information. One lone advocacy post was the Association of State College and University Faculties questioning tuition rates in light of the state university system’s consolidation plan.
Charter schools and cyber charter schools in particular have been under the microscope for years in the Wolf administration, which recently offered a plan to reduce funding to many of them. As cyber charters’ popularity has skyrocketed during the pandemic, local school districts have turned up the pressure for reform.
A search for Pennsylvania charter schools produces a top hit yet again of the $1 billion in charter spending story, this time shared in a post from the PA Charter Performance Center, a project of Public Citizens for Children and Youth. That was retweeted by educators, charter reformers, school board members and grassroots public education advocates.
Another popular tweet was a story about Philadelphia-area superintendents calling for charter funding reforms, saying their growth would cause funding cuts in city schools. This was retweeted by other media, school board members, a school nurse and PCCY.
Narrowing the search only to verified users changed the discussion. Top results were news about Pittsburgh-area charter schools voting to unionize, retweeted 60 times, and news that the Chester Upland School District is on the verge of being replaced by charter schools.
Ironically, the state Education Department secretary tweeted about the governor’s plan to reduce charter school funding. It received no likes or retweets in the specified period.
Searching the governor’s decision to place Pennsylvania in RGGI, which angered legislative leadership, shows a popular tweet from influencer Power PA Jobs, a coalition of labor, industry and consumers opposed to carbon emissions taxes. The tweet said combined rate increases from electric utilities and RGGI would slam communities of color, especially in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, PennEnvironment asked the public to oppose Senate legislation that ultimately would prevent the state from participating in the initiative.
As might be expected, legislators and activists opposed to RGGI say it would do little to reduce greenhouse gases and any pollution reductions would be offset by increases in neighboring states. Supporters cite other states’ statistics showing RGGI would create jobs and improve the health of younger generations.
While the chatter around the state budget is in its initial stages, with predictable voices on each side of charter schools and carbon emissions issues, Paraqeet makes it easier to know who might be swayed and who is already hardened. It also can prevent big surprises, because it enables users not just to eavesdrop but to watch the interconnected relationships as they form in real time and act immediately.