Shapiro’s stance on school vouchers comes under focus amid VP speculation

Citing Gov. Josh Shapiro’s support for private school vouchers, a collection of public education advocacy organizations is urging Vice President Kamala Harris against selecting Shapiro as her running mate in this year’s presidential election – a move that is prompting renewed discussion about Shapiro’s record on public education. 

In a letter signed by 28 organizations – many of which are from out of state – and addressed to Harris, the coalition urged the vice president to select a running mate “who unabashedly supports and defends public education.”

“It is our fervent hope that your running mate will reflect your strong history of supporting educators and students, and commitment to building the middle class which will require strong public schools across our nation,” the letter reads. “For this reason, we respectfully ask you not to select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has supported education policies mirroring Project 2025.”

Shapiro, both on the campaign trail in 2022 and as governor, has supported the idea of using public tax dollars to fund scholarships that would allow students in low-performing public schools to attend a private school of their choice. However, despite initially supporting a $100 million allocation for vouchers during the 2023 state budget cycle, Shapiro ultimately line-item vetoed the funding amid a budget impasse between the Democratic-controlled state House and the GOP-controlled state Senate. 

To date, Shapiro has not signed any voucher legislation into law. 

Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, highlighted the governor’s accomplishments on public education in a statement. 

“In his time in office, Governor Shapiro has consistently delivered historic increases in public education funding and finally, after decades of inaction, moved Pennsylvania towards adequately and equitably funding our public schools,” Bonder said. “Despite being the only Governor in the nation with a divided legislature – and despite bad faith attacks from all sides – Josh Shapiro has been a champion for public education and delivered real results.”

In the state's most recent budget, signed into law on July 11, Shapiro championed and celebrated increases for public education funding, including a $225 million increase in basic education funding through the state’s Fair Funding Formula, bringing the state’s total basic education funding allocation to $8.1 billion. The budget also included a $100 million increase in special education funding, as well as new “adequacy” and “tax equity” allocations of $493 million and $32 million, respectively. 

In an interview with City & State, House Education Committee Chair Peter Schweyer defended Shapiro’s record on education and countered some of the narratives contained in the letter.

“I know people have feelings, but I have receipts. What I’ve seen in the course of the last year and a half, the last 18 months, has been the biggest shift in focus for public education in my entire time as a legislator,” he said. “Not since year one or year two of Gov. Rendell’s tenure have we invested such a remarkable amount of dollars – and more importantly, changed the way that we are prioritizing dollars – for public education.”

Schweyer added that Shapiro has fought for money to increase the number of student teachers in the state, and enacted policy changes that allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to become teachers in the commonwealth. 

“National politics are going to be silly. People are going to say things because somebody from Arizona wants the VP choice to be Mark Kelly, or somebody from Michigan wants it to be Gretchen Whitmer. I get that. I understand that,” Schweyer said. “But I think it would be a disservice to not only Gov. Shapiro, but to our constituents that we currently represent in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, if people don't know the actual facts of what his leadership allowed us to accomplish, and where he’s actually been on all of these key issues.”

Other public education advocates have come to Shapiro’s defense in the wake of the letter. 

With the VP speculation in full swing, some conservative organizations have also looked to hit Shapiro for his record, including the Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market organization that recently criticized Shapiro for, among other things, not signing a private school voucher bill into law. The organization took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post this week comparing the number of bills Shapiro has signed to that of other governors across the nation.

The public push against Shapiro comes as speculation has grown over the possibility of Harris choosing him as her vice presidential nominee after President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 presidential race last weekend. Democrats, including Shapiro, have largely rallied around Harris as the presumptive presidential nominee, and some Pennsylvania Democrats have been pushing for Harris to choose Shapiro as her running mate. 

Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton has publicly supported a potential Harris-Shapiro ticket, and the Philadelphia Democratic Party formally endorsed such a ticket on Tuesday. 

MSNBC reported this week that the Harris campaign requested vetting materials from several potential picks, including Shapiro. Others include North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. 

The outlet reported that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also under consideration. 

As for the letter’s attempt to link Shapiro to Project 2025 – a collection of conservative policy proposals for the federal government that was organized by the Heritage Foundation – Schweyer wasn’t buying it.

“Listen, I’m just as concerned with Project 2025 as everybody else. I am,” he said. “It is bananapants to think – and that is an actual, technical term that I use often in Harrisburg – it is bananapants to think that Gov. Shapiro would ever subscribe to any of this stuff.”