Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), who recently drew attention for his support of private-school vouchers in the face of teacher-union pressure, promised to line-veto funding for the policy he drafted.
While Shapiro campaigned on his support for school choice, he decided Wednesday to break the budget impasse. Critics and school-choice advocates were quick to argue that Shapiro was caving to the teachers unions and turning his back on senate Republicans, who had made spending concessions in return for the vouchers before leaving town.
“Knowing that the two chambers will not reach consensus at this time to enact PASS, and unwilling to hold up our entire budget process over this issue, I will line-item veto the full $100 million appropriation and it will not be part of this budget bill,” wrote Shapiro in a statement. “Our Commonwealth should not be plunged into a painful, protracted budget impasse while our communities wait for the help and resources this commonsense budget will deliver.
House Democrats had expressed opposition to accompanying legislation needed to enact the voucher program and voted it down in committee on Friday. The program would have set aside thousands in private-school tuition funds for students attending the worst-performing schools.
House Democratic leader Matthew Bradford told Shapiro the accompanying legislation would fail in the house.
Shapiro does not strictly need to line-veto the voucher money included in the budget bill in order to ensure it’s not enacted. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the money would have sit unspent in a state Treasury account if and until the additional legislation was passed. However, explained the Inquirer, the governor went a step further by promising a line-veto.
The house gave its assent to the budget bill Wednesday and since no changes were made, it will not be sent back to the Pennsylvania senate for changes. Instead, it will go straight to Shapiro’s desk. While senate Republicans have no recourse with respect to the budget, they still have leverage over separate legislation that may be needed to allow other moneys in the budget bill to be spent, including funds for school buildings and school mental-health counselors.
Republican senators were quick to express shock at the turn of events. “If this was the plan in the end, [Shapiro] certainly will have ruined his credibility with us, which to this point had been pretty strong,” said Senator Chris Gebhard to the Associated Press.
The senate Republican caucus also condemned Shapiro’s veto.
Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, wrote on Twitter that Shapiro’s veto “is a slap in the face to voters.” A solid majority of Pennsylvanians have expressed support for school choice.
“The teachers unions are already upset with him. Now he will face problems from two special interests: parents & teachers unions.” argued DeAngelis. “He should have kept his word.”
Studies throughout the years have not found that school-choice programs harm student outcomes in public schools. A recent study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty showed that the state’s commitment to school choice has not harmed students in Milwaukee, Racine, and the rest of the state. Unlike Pennsylvania, Wisconsin was recently able to make a historic investment in school choice through a bipartisan agreement.
Shapiro campaigned as a moderate who believed in school choice and said he did not think public schools would be harmed if he were to pursue vouchers.
In the days preceding the veto, the governor’s support for the vouchers was portrayed as shrewd recognition of the political realities in the Keystone State. Former president Donald Trump lost the state by less than 100,000 votes in 2020, and one recent survey of Pennsylvania voters has Trump in a dead heat with President Joe Biden.
According to Matthew Brouillette, the president and CEO of the conservative group Commonwealth Partners, Shapiro “claims he wins big fights, but in the first big fight of his administration — with kids’ futures on the line — he left the court without even taking a shot.”
“Today, Gov. Shapiro shows who really runs this state, and it’s not him,” Brouillette said.