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HARRISBURG, PA (July 5, 2023) – PSEA President Rich Askey today commended Pennsylvania House Democratic leaders and the lawmakers who voted for a state budget that increases funding by more than $730 million for public schools.

The budget approved by the House of Representatives also includes $100 million for a new tuition voucher program favored by Senate Republicans, but Gov. Josh Shapiro announced today that he will veto that line item. Last week, the House Rules Committee voted down Senate-passed legislation to create a voucher program, and without a law to authorize the use of vouchers in Pennsylvania, the $100 million appropriated for it in the budget cannot be spent.

“We’re grateful that lawmakers have approved a state budget that makes much-needed investments in our public schools,” Askey said. “It is important to recognize that the funding increases in this budget are only a down payment on a long-term fix to our unconstitutional public school funding system. We need to do everything we can to ensure that our public school students have the resources they need to succeed.

“Last week, the education community made it clear that we oppose the tuition voucher scheme passed by the state Senate. Today, Gov. Shapiro announced that he will use his line-item veto power to eliminate the $100 million tuition voucher appropriation. That removes our concerns with the budget bill.

“Going forward, we need to focus on fixing Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional public school funding system rather than cooking up new tuition voucher schemes that waste taxpayers’ money and have failed to improve student outcomes in other states.”

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.