{"id":1684058,"date":"2022-10-11T16:49:43","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T20:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684058"},"modified":"2022-10-11T16:52:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T20:52:03","slug":"pennsylvania-democratic-governor-candidate-makes-unorthodox-nod-to-school-choice-in-final-weeks-of-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-democratic-governor-candidate-makes-unorthodox-nod-to-school-choice-in-final-weeks-of-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Candidate Makes Unorthodox Nod To School Choice In Final Weeks Of Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpennsylvania-democratic-governor-candidate-makes-unorthodox-nod-to-school-choice-in-final-weeks-of-campaign%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684058&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/topic\/pennsylvania\">Pennsylvania<\/a> Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro is nodding to certain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/school-choice\">school choice<\/a> initiatives \u2014 an unusual play for a swing-state progressive with a lengthy history of supporting government education.<\/p>\n<p>In the aftermath of school <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/school-lockdowns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lockdowns<\/a> that ravaged learning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outcomes<\/a> across the United States, education has become a top issue for citizens casting a ballot in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/2022-midterms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">midterm<\/a> elections. Roughly 74% of registered voters support school choice, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/poll-more-parents-now-support-funding-students-not-systems-after-year-of-covid-lockdowns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">poll<\/a> from RealClear Opinion Research, while search engine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/community-family\/midterms-2022-here-are-the-issues-pennsylvania-voters-care-about-the-most\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">data<\/a> analyzed by the Washington Examiner appears to indicate that education is a particularly salient issue for voters in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>The national <a href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/where-we-stand\/party-platform\/providing-a-world-class-education-in-every-zip-code\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">platform<\/a> for the Democratic Party expressly opposes \u201cprivate school vouchers and other policies that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from the public school system.\u201d Shapiro, the attorney general of the Keystone State, nevertheless supports \u201cadding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania,\u201d according to his campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/joshshapiro.org\/policy-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a> in language that was added only last month, as revealed by online <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220907020922\/https:\/joshshapiro.org\/policy-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The commonwealth\u2019s lifeline scholarship <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.state.pa.us\/CFDOCS\/Legis\/PN\/Public\/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&amp;sessYr=2021&amp;sessInd=0&amp;billBody=H&amp;billTyp=B&amp;billNbr=2169&amp;pn=3288\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legislation<\/a>, which passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and advanced beyond the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee earlier this year, would reallocate funds from the bottom 15% of districts to help families pay for tuition at alternative schools. Shapiro also promises to appoint at least two parents to the State Board of Education, according to his campaign website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShapiro\u2019s shift towards supporting school choice is a wise political move,\u201d American Federation for Children National Director of Research Corey DeAngelis told The Daily Wire, noting that the vast majority of Pennsylvanian parents approve of policies such as education savings accounts. \u201cIt looks like Shapiro is reading the tea leaves. He saw what happened to Terry McAuliffe in Virginia \u2014 Republican Glenn Youngkin won on education in a state that went 10 points to Biden just the year before \u2014 and Shapiro doesn\u2019t want to face the same fate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Shapiro is <a href=\"https:\/\/joshshapiro.org\/endorsements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">endorsed<\/a> by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a teachers union representing more than 187,000 employees, and filed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneygeneral.gov\/taking-action\/ag-shapiro-files-brief-in-support-of-fair-funding-in-pennsylvania-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">amicus brief<\/a> earlier this year against plaintiffs challenging the commonwealth\u2019s system of funding government schools. The Daily Wire reached out to the Shapiro campaign to ask if the candidate supports any other school choice legislation, but did not receive a response in time for publication.<\/p>\n<p>The amalgam of support for government education and nods toward school choice is unorthodox for a Democratic candidate, especially one who sends his four children to a Jewish day school that <a href=\"https:\/\/delawarevalleyjournal.com\/backed-by-teachers-unions-fetterman-shapiro-send-their-kids-to-private-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">costs<\/a> more than $30,000 per year. DeAngelis argued that the atypical policy platform indicates a \u201cseismic shift\u201d in American politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a way it doesn\u2019t really matter whether this was a true change of heart or a political move \u2014 that a high-profile Democrat running for governor, who is up in the polls, felt compelled to switch his stance less than two months before the election is good news for families,\u201d he explained. \u201cSchool choice is emerging as a political winner because parents are pushing back, which could be the path towards widespread bipartisan support for education freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polls have indeed shown Shapiro with a sizable lead over Republican rival and state lawmaker Doug Mastriano, who promises to \u201cfight like hell\u201d for school choice in a manner that gives government schools \u201cthe competition that will make them great,\u201d according to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doug4gov.com\/the_plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some operatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/news\/election2022\/2022\/10\/09\/mastriano-campaign-republican-support-pennsylvania-governor-race-polls-shapiro-trump\/stories\/202210090145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">note<\/a> that Mastriano has assembled a more robust grassroots base than his opponent. However, DeAngelis suspects that the attorney general\u2019s openness toward school choice is more than an eleventh-hour ploy to hedge against an election upset because of his decision to explicitly identify the lifeline scholarship proposal \u2014 a bill that passed the Pennsylvania House with only one affirmative Democratic vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder to back out of support for a specific piece of legislation than a broad concept that politicians can redefine and pivot away from later on,\u201d DeAngelis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro is nodding to certain school choice initiatives \u2014 an unusual play for a swing-state progressive with a lengthy history of supporting government education. In the aftermath of school lockdowns that ravaged learning outcomes across the United States, education has become a top issue for citizens casting a ballot in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1684060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1684060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}