PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 25, 2026--
John Steinmetz, retired Chief Technology Officer at SEI Investments, has joined the Board of Directors of BLOCS, Pennsylvania’s leading scholarship organization dedicated to the PA Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs.
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Steinmetz brings decades of technology and operations leadership to the role, with prior experience at PECO Energy. A resident of Oaks, Pa., he joins the board as BLOCS enters a new chapter of growth, now serving more than 43,000 students across 584 schools statewide — up from roughly 17,000 students two years ago.
BLOCS CEO Rob Delany said Steinmetz's operational background positions him to help guide the organization through a period of expansion.
BLOCS distributes need-based scholarships funded through Pennsylvania's EITC program, which allows businesses and individuals to redirect a portion of their state tax liability to approved schools in exchange for a tax credit. Lawmakers created the bipartisan program in 2001 under then-Gov. Tom Ridge, and 2026 marks its 25th anniversary.
Matt McFillin, chairman of the BLOCS Board of Directors, said Steinmetz's addition strengthens the board as it works to expand access to educational options for families. "John's expertise in enterprise strategy and operations comes at a critical moment for BLOCS, and we're confident his perspective will help us serve even more of the 43,000 students who count on us across all 584 schools statewide," McFillin said.
BLOCS is the leading scholarship organization dedicated to raising need-based scholarships through the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program. As an independent charitable organization, BLOCS provides access to high-quality, value-based education for children ages Pre-K through 12th grade across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Through the generosity of its donors, BLOCS partners with over 500 schools to provide over 43,000 need-based scholarships. More can be found at www.blocs.org.
John Steinmetz
Full results released Friday from Russia's first wartime parliamentary election showed that the tightly orchestrated vote had further cemented the Kremlin's overwhelming political control of the country.
United Russia, the main Kremlin party, will get more than three-fourths of the seats in the State Duma, a record high, according to returns released by the Central Election Commission.
Virtually any genuine opposition parties or candidates were excluded from running in the Sept. 18-20 election. A massive state media campaign and tight control over the voting process allowed the Kremlin to strengthen its political dominance despite Russia's economic troubles and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks.
Nearly 60% of the 111 million eligible voters turned out in the three-day balloting, the most for a parliamentary election in more than a decade. Authorities had spread the voting over three days and allowed online voting in some regions to boost participation.
The parliamentary election was the first since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first to include residents of four regions of that country that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year.
Voting also was held in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv denounced the voting in those regions as illegal.
Russia didn’t invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Election commission chief Ella Pamfilova said United Russia got 349 out of 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower chamber. It polled 58% of the ballot for the 225 seats apportioned by parties and also won 209 single-seat races that fill the other half of the chamber.
On Wednesday, Putin declared that the election results were a show of public support for his policies.
Several smaller parties representing the “systemic opposition” that vote in line with the Kremlin on all key issues won 97 seats, and the remaining four seats were filled by regional officials who ran without a party affiliation.
Pamfilova said 46 Ukraine war veterans were elected, including 41 from United Russia.
“The experience of our heroes is in demand; the voting results have clearly confirmed this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “They will make a maximum contribution to the shaping of various initiatives.”
The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court. It only had a few dozen candidates in the single-seat races and none of them won a seat.
The election took place against the backdrop of incessant Ukrainian drone attacks. Officials said air defenses downed over 1,100 Ukrainian drones, including 450 drones heading for Moscow on the final day of voting in what Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as “the largest ever” attack on the capital. The attack, which damaged an oil refinery and a residential building, killed three people and injured 38 in the wider Moscow region, officials said.
Pamfilova said six poll workers were killed in Ukrainian attacks and 75 polling stations were damaged or destroyed by shelling.
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, holds a moment of silence in memory of the deceased members of the electoral commissions, during reporting of the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, applauds after reporting the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The official results of Russia's parliamentary elections are seen on the screen during the Central Election Commission meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, center, reports the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
