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HARRISBURG, PA (July 11, 2024) – Aaron Chapin, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, today released the following statement, commending lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro for finalizing a bi-partisan state budget that includes significant investments in public education.
“Gov. Shapiro has often talked about his commitment to funding public education. With this budget, he not only kept his word, but exceeded expectations on behalf of our students and our public schools.
"Working together, Gov. Shapiro and legislative leaders like Rep. Matt Bradford and Sen. Joe Pittman have secured a historic increase in K-12 education funding and delivered more than a billion new state dollars for Pennsylvania's public schools. Even more importantly, they took a significant step toward fixing our broken public school funding system. We are grateful for the bi-partisan commitment to investing in our public school students and the educators and support professionals who teach and serve them every day.
"We know we have more work to do to ensure that every public school has the resources to provide every student with the power of a great education, but today we celebrate the work of Gov. Shapiro, Rep. Bradford, Sen. Pittman, and the legislators who supported this budget agreement.
“One of PSEA’s top priorities will continue to be securing a cost-of-living adjustment for more than 40,000 retired educators and support professionals who have not seen a COLA in their pensions since 2002. We’re disappointed that lawmakers did not include a COLA in the final state budget agreement, but we won’t forget how important it is to authorize a COLA for these dedicated school staff members.
"Going forward, PSEA will work with all stakeholders to implement the multi-year plan included in the Basic Education Funding Commission's majority report and fix our public school funding system once and for all."
Chapin is a Stroudsburg Area middle school teacher and president of PSEA. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents about 177,000 active and retired educators and school employees, student teachers, higher education staff, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.
