FILE - Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Gov. Josh Shapiro spent over 90 minutes introducing initiatives in his proposed 2025-26 budget during an address before the state legislature Tuesday.

The 50 senators and 253 representatives in the General Assembly split along party lines in their response to the proposals that the governor enumerated. It was the third time that Shapiro delivered a budget address since assuming the office in 2023.

Stating several times that “Pennsylvania is on the rise,” Shapiro fairly early in the speech brought up the issue of education, proposing an additional $526 million funding through the bipartisan adequacy formula, which is helping to reform the way that public education is funded.

“We knew that was a problem and we agreed the old system was unconstitutional,” Shapiro said.

“So last year, we made a commitment to not only invest a record amount of money in public education but create a brand-new formula that drives that money out to the schools that need it most. You voted for that, I signed it into law, and we agreed to keep doing it until we meet our obligation set forth in Article 3, Section 14, which guarantees every Pennsylvanian access to a “thorough and efficient system of public education,” he said.

The proposed budget will also increase special education funding by $40 million, bringing the total to over $1.5 billion.

He cited the teacher shortage crisis which he said was identified as a “looming issue.”

“To address it, we created a new initiative to fund student teacher stipends to make sure those who are just getting started in this profession are paid for their hard work,” he said.

“We’re putting more teachers in our classrooms and expanding the resources available to our students.

Shapiro noted that 778 schools have been able so far to expand mental health services and hire counselors after students’ mental health became a priority.

The education budget includes: increasing funding for school repairs by $25 million for a total of $125 million per year; continuing $111 million for student mental health and school safety grants and investing $3 million to continue to provide menstrual hygiene products at no cost to students in schools.

The proposed budget also provides for continuing universal free breakfasts for students regardless of income.

“What we’re doing for education is working. Let’s continue to build on this foundation we’ve laid,” he said.

Over the past two years, funding for vo-tech, career and technical education and apprenticeships has increased by nearly 65 million, he said.

“There are many paths to success and we’ve got to respect — and support — all of them,” Shapiro said.

Focusing on higher education, Shapiro said, “We’ve finally started to fix the problem that I identified in my first budget address of universities competing against each other for limited dollars and ultimately driving up costs for students.”

“We created a coordinating council to ensure we’re all rowing in the same direction. And for the first time ever, we’re going to incentivize outcomes — paying our universities for their performance in meeting goals like graduating students with in-demand degrees and skills; graduating first generation college students; and incentivizing universities when their graduates stay and work in Pennsylvania,” he said.

“My budget keeps up the scholarships and grants we funded last year — and it fully funds that performance-based formula for Pitt, Penn State and Temple,” he added.

Shapiro also noted that there are 650,000 adult residents that don’t even have a high school diploma.

“That’s hundreds of thousands of our neighbors with untapped potential — folks who want to advance their careers, but need help developing the reading, writing and math skills most jobs require,” he said.

To deal with this problem, Shapiro is advocating for $6 million for adult literacy programs.