PA Dem Trifecta Could Mean the End of School Choice

Pennsylvania taxpayers are seeing Democrats’ 2026 budget priorities – spending taxpayer money, enforcing bureaucratic regulations, and engaging in virtue-signaling. Worse, it’s a frightening preview for Pennsylvania parents: what 2027 could mean if Democrats win the “trifecta,” holding the state House, taking over the Senate, and re-electing Gov. Shapiro. The slow death of school choice.

For over two decades, more Pennsylvania parents have been searching for school options for their children. Fewer are attending traditional public schools. Plus, tens of thousands of students are on charter school and tuition-assistance scholarship waiting lists. Democratic Party leaders, legislators, and Shapiro have taken notice – and not in a good way.

The teachers’ unions have noticed, too. They’re furious over losing “meal tickets.” Their unions are multi-million-dollar donors to Democrats. They demand legislative action from the politicians they paid for. Students and parents be dammed.

It’s also hypocritical. Shapiro, many public-school teachers, and Democratic legislators send their children to private, Catholic, or charter schools. It’s school choice for the elite, not poor and working-class families.

Aside from being selfish, the teachers’ unions have a political problem. Their position is incredibly unpopular.

All forms of school choice are gaining popularity. Parents keep enrolling their children in digital “cyber schools,” charter schools and/or applying for Pennsylvania’s tuition-assistance scholarships (charitable donations permitted under Pennsylvania’s education improvement tax credit, known as EITC).

Second, polling shows that 80% of the public supports school choice – empowering parents to find a school that works for their child. Moreover, African-American and Hispanic support is even higher.

It would be political suicide to pass legislation to close cyber or charter schools, or to eliminate tuition-assistance scholarships.

So, Gov. Shapiro, nearly all Democratic legislators, and their school board allies have now put their teachers’ union-“inspired” vision into legislation: schemes to cause a slow, painful death to all school choice options.

It’s a purposeful plan: (1) cut the funding to cyber schools, charter schools, and the education tax credit tuition assistance program; (2) add cumbersome regulations that take money away from education burying them in bureaucratic paperwork; and (3), add billions of extra taxpayer dollars to district-run schools -- this year openly scheming to take money from non-public school students and handing it over to district-run school organizations.

Regarding the boat-loads of our money shoveled into district-run schools, note that the last five years have seen the largest growth in public school spending ever – now over $41 billion, nearly $5 billion in Philadelphia alone. Taxpayers are spending an average of $25,000 per student – more than the tuition at Merion Mercy Academy.

What do parents and taxpayers get for $25,000 per student?

Reading proficiency rate averages range between 30% and 49% across the state. Some schools have single-digit rates. Some have zero: No one can do grade level work.

Clearly, it’s not about needing more money spent. More proof: Mississippi has a reading proficiency rate of 85%, while spending only about $12,700 per student. They focus on phonics, reading, and writing – not political activism, victims/oppressors, and social promotions. 

Worse, a Carnegie Mellon University report based on federal guidelines details 46% of public schools are “persistently violent” – 71% in Philly, 84% in Pittsburgh.

Is it any wonder why more parents are searching for options? Why school board meetings are becoming so contentious? 

This explains why teachers’ unions and their politicians are now standing in front of the school-house door: forcing students to stay inside schools.

Democratic political leaders throw-around phrases like “accountability,” “right-sizing” for cybers and charters, and “income caps” for tuition-assistance scholarships, hiding their true goal: killing school choice.

Taxpayers and parents should keep in mind three things: (1) every child enrolled in a cyber or charter school – or using a tuition assistance scholarship to attend a Catholic or other non-public school – is there by choice: they can go back to their district school at any moment if they’re unhappy; (2) taxpayers save money with school choice: cybers cost only about 61% and charters about 66% of district run schools; tuition-assistance scholarships are funded by charitable donations – plus every child in a non-public school saves taxpayers the $25,000 per student cost to educate; and (3), their proposed income caps tell nurses, police officers and members of the building trades that they’re “too rich” to merit tuition-assistance.

At its core, despite the rhetoric, the teachers union and their legislators selfishly oppose school choice because it works – they’re afraid even more parents will demand choice.

The teachers’ union is being selfish, and hypocritical. We should demand that our elected officials focus on our students and taxpayers – or find new legislators.

Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. Guy writes for RealClear Pennsylvania and Broad+Liberty. Follow Guy @PhilaFreedomGuy