Shapiro Is Ignoring Students Trying to Escape Failing Schools

According to the Nation’s Report Card, nearly 70% of Pennsylvania’s eighth-graders can’t read or do math at grade level. Results are worse in Philadelphia, where 95% of Black eighth-graders aren’t proficient at math, and 89% can't read at grade level. Moreover, 90% of Hispanic eighth-graders aren’t meeting achievement levels.

The declining performance in public schools has occurred despite record increases in public school funding, including more than $4 billion in increases in state taxpayer funding in the last four years alone.

In fact, on the campaign trail, Shapiro said he supported Lifeline Scholarships to help kids in the lowest-performing schools. The governor also said he wants to expand Pennsylvania’s tax-credit scholarship programs to help more kids.

Just last year, Shapiro went on news interviews, saying he still supports Lifeline Scholarships and asking, “Why not provide some resources for those students who are struggling?” He also rightly pointed out that the program wouldn’t take any funding away from public schools.

But as governor, he has refused to lead. His recent budget proposal includes nothing – not one dollar – to help kids trapped in failing schools. Shapiro mentioned neither the Lifeline Scholarship proposal he previously supported nor any increases for tax-credit scholarships.

That’s nearly one out of every ten students applying for EITC and OSTC scholarships to attend a better school. Barely half got the help they needed, with almost 80,000 scholarship applications turned away.

Who are these students?

EITC and OSTC scholarships serve students in 66 of the state’s 67 counties. Based on the data my organization compiled from providers, scholarship students come from families averaging $41,000 and $73,000 in income, far less than the median family income of $93,000 in Pennsylvania.

The average scholarship of $2,700 helps families afford tuition at a high-quality, safe, non-public school, where the average tuition is less than $10,000. But tens of thousands of students who didn’t receive scholarships are far less likely to be able to afford those better options.

The fact that Pennsylvania’s caps on tax-credit scholarship donations deny educational opportunity to so many kids is a moral crime. What’s also a crime is how Shapiro also ignores their plight.

In contrast, Shapiro wants to throw good money after bad. Since his election, the governor has increased state funding for public schools by $2 billion to a record $16.8 billion. Shapiro wants another $824 million increase in his latest budget. Pennsylvania already ranked 7th highest in the nation, spending $22,000 per student.

The extra cash has done nothing to boost student achievement, as evident by the abysmal results in the Nation’s Report Card. This money, however, has padded district reserves, now over $6.8 billion statewide. About half of school districts have reserves more than 20% of their budgets.

Shapiro could help tens of thousands of students find better educational options, for a fraction of the cost, but has chosen to put the education bureaucracy ahead of kids.

While the past two budgets included modest increases in the tax-credit scholarship caps, those hard-won victories came despite Josh Shapiro, not because of him. Senate Republicans had to fight for bumps to help kids trapped on waiting lists.

Pennsylvania families need increases to these tax-credit scholarship programs. They also need more transformative options, like the Lifeline Scholarships that Shapiro once promised, that could help thousands of low-income students escape the worst-performing public schools.

These commonsense solutions would give Pennsylvania families genuine freedom to choose the best school for their kids. Indeed, our neighbors in West Virginia and Ohio – as well as states like Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, and Tennessee – have led the way with programs that empower all parents to find the best education for their kids.

But instead of talking about what families need, the governor has chosen to double down on a status quo that isn’t working for Pennsylvania kids. Shapiro’s silence about empowering the most vulnerable students speaks volumes.

Andrew J. Lewis is President and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.