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HARRISBURG, PA (Feb. 4, 2025) — PSEA President Aaron Chapin issued the following comments today on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed FY 2025-26 state budget.

The proposed budget includes funding increases for basic education, special education, and the state’s student teacher stipend program, among other initiatives, and ensures that Pennsylvania stays on track to fix the state’s unconstitutional school funding system.

“We commend Gov. Shapiro’s remarkably strong commitment to public education,” Chapin said. “As a whole, this budget represents a major step forward in fully and fairly funding our public schools and addressing the educator shortage.

“While there’s no doubt that legislators, advocates, parents, and others will debate about specific line items in the proposal, the governor has absolutely knocked this budget out of the park.”

Basic Education

The proposed budget includes an overall increase of more than $600 million in key funding for public schools, including a $526 million increase to provide adequacy and tax equity payments to qualifying school districts through the Ready to Learn Block Grant program and a $75 million increase to be distributed to all school districts through the Basic Education Funding formula.

“Last year, Gov. Shapiro and lawmakers from both parties collaborated to take a historic first step to fix Pennsylvania’s unconstitutionally broken public school funding system,” Chapin said. “This budget proposal represents a starting point for continuing this necessary work, and PSEA looks forward to working with the governor and the Legislature to enact a final state budget that provides as much of a funding increase as possible for our public schools.”

Student Teacher Stipends

The proposed budget includes a $20 million increase in funding for the Student Teacher Support Program, which provides $10,000 stipends to eligible aspiring educators while they perform their full-time student teaching experience. Student teachers receiving a stipend agree to work as teachers at schools within Pennsylvania for at least three years.

Twenty million dollars was appropriated for the program in the FY 2024-25 budget. Total funding for FY 2025-26 would be $40 million under the governor’s proposal.

Student teacher stipends have been life-changing for more than 2,000 aspiring educators across Pennsylvania, including Melanie Williams, an education major at the University of Indiana of Pennsylvania and a Student PSEA member. Williams recently completed her student teaching in the Centennial School District in Bucks County and was a guest in the state House chamber for Gov. Shapiro’s budget address today.

“As a mother of two, I was so relieved to learn that I had received a student teacher stipend,” Williams said. “It is virtually impossible to work a full-time job as a student teacher and support my family. The only reason I decided to do my student teaching last fall was because this program was available. 

“Without a student teacher stipend, I don’t know how I would have been able to gas up my car, put food on the table for my kids, and get the classroom experience I needed to complete my certification. It was exciting to hear Gov. Shapiro talk about the stipend program during his budget address and call for a substantial funding increase. This program has been truly life-changing for me, and I hope it continues to support people like me in the future.”

Chapin thanked the governor for prioritizing funding for student teacher stipends but urged him and lawmakers to consider increasing funding to at least $50 million in FY 2025-26.

“We appreciate the governor’s decision to allocate more funding for student teacher stipends as we move toward fully funding this important program,” Chapin said. “In the current school year, more than 4,000 student teachers applied for stipends, but there was only enough funding for 2,144. We need at least $50 million to ensure that every eligible student can receive a stipend as they complete their student teaching.”

Special Education

Chapin said one area where he would like to see greater investments is in the governor’s $40 million increase in special education funding at a time when the need for and cost of special education services is on the rise.

“We strongly encourage Gov. Shapiro and lawmakers from both parties to consider the unique needs of students receiving special education services and increase funding for them by at least $100 million,” Chapin said.

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, aspiring educators, higher education staff, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.