Shapiro pushes for education funding in proposed budget, says ‘real opportunity begins in our classrooms’

With the state holding a $14 billion surplus as of the end of the last fiscal year and a proposed budget which contains no tax increase, Gov.Josh Shapiro delivered his 2024 budget address filled with ambitious proposals and a plea to members of the General Assembly in attendance to "compromise" in order to get the work done.

"We need to give a little to get anything done," Shapiro told the group assembled in the Capitol Rotunda.

"While we've had some challenging moments, I think we've all learned from them, myself included. We've learned how to work together to get stuff done to deliver the kind of common sense solutions that I talked about last year," he said.

The state Senate is controlled by Republicans and the House of Representatives by the Democratic Party, and the two are often on opposite sides of issues.

Education was again a focus of the governor's proposed budget.

"Let's start with our kids, because real opportunity begins in our classrooms," he said.

Referring to the ruling last year by the Court of Common Pleas that the ways public schools are funded is unconstitutional, Shapiro said that over the past year, a basic education funding commission had worked at compiling a report that outlined a path forward to deliver a comprehensive solution on K-12 education in the state.

"Following the general contours of that report my budget invests $1.1 billion in new funding this year for our schools and it makes sure no school gets less than they did last year as we drive thesis dollars out in a more equitable manner," he said.

Of that amount, $900 million will be sent to support children under a new adequacy formula to ensure schools have the appropriate levels of resources needed.

Special education funding will be increased by another $50 million in the budget and another $30 million will go to Pre-K programs to help recruit and retain teachers.

The state will continue to fund universal free breakfast during the school year as well as fund the summer food service program.

"At a time when some governors are eschewing federal funding that would ensure kids are well fed over the summer, we've already shown that we-Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans alike -- care about our kids and that we will come together to feed them," Shapiro said.

The budget also includes more funding for student mental health.

It addresses issues that district's face repairing outdated school buildings and infrastructure.

"We need to invest a lot more to help theses districts maintain safe and healthy learning environments for students," he said.

"My budget builds on the progress we made, setting aside $1.5 billion including $300 million this year alone to make our schools healthy and safe," he added.

Citing statistics from the state Department of Education, Shapiro said that there are about 5,500 teacher vacancies across the system.

Over the past year, the state has sped up the time it takes for teachers to be certified as well as offering stipends for student teachers. Shapiro's budget proposes additional investments in student teachers and talent recruitment in order to address the shortage of educators.

Another area Shapiro touched on was the need to teach children how to discern fact from fiction in light of what he calls the "half-truths, prejudices and propaganda," that they encounter on their phones and social media.

To deal with this he said that the Department of Education is developing a toolkit for teachers and parents on digital literacy and critical thinking.

One issue that many districts struggle with is cyber charter school funding which takes a huge chunk of their annual budgets. In light of that, Shapiro spoke about what he called an "antiquated state law" which governs how those schools are funded.

"When the charter school law was first adopted back in 1997, the idea of going to a cyber school was new and relatively few parents send their kids there. But today nearly 60,000 Pennsylvania students go to cyber charters. However, we've never gone back and reevaluated how we fund these schools," he said.

Cyber charters get the same amount per student as brick and mortar schools do, but it varies by district meaning that one district might pay $7,000 while another pays $10,000 to the same school.

"While cyber charters certainly need adequate funding to operate, logic would dictate the two students going to the same school get the same education would pay the same rate. Logic would also dictate that they need less than a brick and mortar charter school simply because they don't have the same physical infrastructure," he said.

To solve the issue, Shapiro proposed that a uniform rate for students attending cyber charter schools be enacted which would "level the playing field" and result in $262 million going back to public schools.

Throughout his address, the governor stressed that it would take the divided legislature working together to pass his proposals.

"One of those conversations," he said, "will need to be about scholarships that let poor families in struggling school districts put their kids in the best position for them to succeed-whether that's paying for extra tutoring, books and computers or yes, going to another school."

The Senate last year passed a proposal that would include this, but the House did not agree at that point.

"We've left room for the House and Senate to find common ground on this," he said.

He cautioned that the "challenges around education aren't going to be solved in one budget cycle, but we can make real progress toward a lasting, equitable solution," he said.

Commenting on the governor's address, Dr. Brian Ulmer, superintendent in the Jersey Shore Area School District, said, "In the last year, the process for funding Pennsylvania public schools was ruled unconstitutional. Pennsylvania students should not have limited access to educational opportunities because of where they live."

"As our Board of Directors begins the budget process, they make painful decisions every year to keep costs as low as possible. Jersey Shore students deserve the same facilities, courses and opportunities as students in other parts of the state.

"Gov. Shapiro's proposal to increase Basic Education Funding; Special Education Funding; provide for supports in CTE and Dual Enrollment, school safety, mental health and student health are welcome. As superintendent, I also support Gov. Shapiro's plan to allow us to keep more funding locally with the proposal to align cyber charter tuition to actual costs," Ulmer said.

As superintendent of the largest district in the area, Dr. Timothy S. Bowers, of the Williamsport Area School District, stated, "Overall, the governor's proposal was very positive and favorable to education. Our governor truly understands the importance of investing in our kids to make a better Commonwealth,"

"If his budget proposal is fully funded, it would bring a significant increase to our budget and allow us to work on innovative programming to address the needs of all our students," Bowers said.