State Representative

Chester County native Curt Schroder is serving his fifth term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was first elected to represent the 155th Legislative District in November 1994.

As a member of the General Assembly, Schroder serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for developing the annual state budget, as well as the House Republican Policy Committee, which plays a key role in identifying and gathering more information about top legislative priorities for the Commonwealth.

He is also a member of the House Insurance and Judiciary committees, both of which are at the forefront of addressing the state’s ongoing medical malpractice crisis. Schroder has been a leader in the fight to lower malpractice insurance costs to keep good doctors practicing in the Commonwealth. In 2002, he championed a new law making major reforms to the malpractice legal system, and he served on the Interbranch Commission on Venue, which developed a new law that requires malpractice cases to be brought only in the county in which the alleged malpractice act occurred.

In 2004, Schroder’s Trauma Systems Stablization Act was signed into law. The law helps ensure access to life-saving trauma care by designating a new level of trauma care and by providing much-needed grants to the state’s accredited trauma centers.

Other health care issues Schroder has championed include the law requiring insurers to allow 48-hour hospital stays after delivery for both mothers and newborns, and he has worked to reform the managed health care system to give patients greater rights. Schroder has also focused on a variety of issues of concern to local governments including technology upgrades to county courthouses.

Responding to the growing number of bomb threats in the wake of the Columbine tragedy, Schroder introduced legislation increasing the penalties for making bomb threats in the Commonwealth. The law also gives courts the ability to order a person convicted of making bomb threats to pay for the cost of responding to such incidents.

Prior to his election, he served as Prothonotary for Chester County from 1992-1994. His involvement in politics and public service began in 1984, when he worked on constituent issues in the district office of U.S. Congressman Richard T. Schulze. He also served as Campaign Coordinator for Schulze for Congress in 1984. Schroder then joined Nationwide Insurance as an associate agent before beginning his legal career, first with the firm of German, Gallagher and Murtagh from 1987 through 1991.

Schroder continues to be an active resident of the district, serving on the Brandywine Hospital Board of Directors and the Transportation Management Association of Chester County (TMACC). He is a member of the Downingtown Lions Club.

He previously served on the Brandywine YMCA Board of Directors, where he was chairman of the Annual Giving Campaign that raised more than $115,000 for Y scholarships for needy families in 1999. He also served as chairman of the Chester County Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board and as a member of the East Brandywine Township Planning Commission.

Schroder was named Legislator of the Year by the TriCounty Chamber of Commerce in 2002. He was honored as the Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 1998 by the Downingtown Chamber of Commerce, and he also received the Citizenship award from the Pennsylvania VFW for his commitment to fostering patriotism.

Schroder spent two academic years serving as a Legislative Fellow at West Chester University, where he offered class lectures and interacted with students. He also acted as a consultant to a senior seminar course in political science, which focused on lawmaking and the legislative process.

Schroder graduated from Downingtown High School in 1979 and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He earned his Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law in 1989.

Schroder worked at the Davey Company, a paper mill formerly located in Downingtown, to help pay his way through college and worked as a law clerk at German, Gallagher and Murtagh while going to law school in the evening.

He and his wife, the former Deanna K. Doty, reside in Downingtown with their two children, Mark and Kristen.

Schroder is a member of Hopewell United Methodist Church outside of Guthriesville, where he participates in Hopewell’s Passion Play during the month of June.