{"id":1965118,"date":"2023-07-05T21:14:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T01:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-governor-caves-to-teachers-union-on-school-choice\/"},"modified":"2023-07-05T21:15:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T01:15:28","slug":"pennsylvania-governor-caves-to-teachers-union-on-school-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-governor-caves-to-teachers-union-on-school-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"PA Governor yields to teachers union on school choice."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/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-governor-caves-to-teachers-union-on-school-choice%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=1965118&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--><h2>Pennsylvania Governor Drops $100 Million School Vouchers Program After Opposition<\/h2>\n<p>In a significant turn of events, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has abandoned his previous demands for a $100 million school vouchers program from the state budget. This decision comes after facing fierce opposition from teachers unions and other Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>The voucher program, which had the support of the Republican-controlled state Senate, encountered roadblocks in the Democratic state House. Despite the budget including several Democratic priorities such as increased education spending and state funding for legal defense, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-governor-caves-to-teachers-union-on-school-choice\/\" title=\"PA Governor yields to teachers union on school choice.\">voucher program faced strong resistance<\/a> from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state. This opposition caused the state budget to miss its June 30 deadline, prompting Shapiro to back down.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur 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,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cKnowing that the two chambers will not reach consensus at this time to enact [the voucher program], and unwilling to hold up our entire budget process over this issue, I will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-rick-scott-on-11-point-plan-with-128-promises-from-republicans-we-win-elections-by-having-plans\/\" title=\"Exclusive \u2014 Rick Scott on 11-Point Plan with 128 Promises from Republicans: \u2018We Win Elections by Having Plans\u2019\">line-item veto<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-josh-shapiro-backs-out-of-bipartisan-school-voucher-program-to-please-democrats\/\" title=\"Gov. Josh Shapiro withdraws support for bipartisan school voucher program to appease Democrats.\">full 0 million appropriation<\/a> and it will not be part of this budget bill,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>School choice emerged as a major issue in Pennsylvania&#8217;s gubernatorial race in 2022, second only to crime. State assessments revealed that in 2021, 78% of 8th-graders were not proficient in math and 47% were not proficient in language arts.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the campaign, Shapiro broke ranks with many Democrats by expressing his support for &#8220;adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania.&#8221; His Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, proposed his own voucher program that would have significantly cut education spending. Mastriano&#8217;s proposal was strongly denounced by the PSEA as &#8220;devastating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro&#8217;s preferred program, the Lifeline Scholarship, aimed to provide students from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kentucky-gov-vetoes-school-choice-bill-despite-sending-kids-to-private-school\/\" title=\"Kentucky Gov. Vetoes School Choice Bill Despite Sending Kids To Private School\">underperforming public schools<\/a> with $7,000 in education vouchers to be used at a school of their family&#8217;s choice, including private schools. While the proposal garnered support from Republicans and some Democrats representing districts with struggling public schools, it was categorically rejected by most state Democrats, as well as teachers unions and other interest groups.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cPSEA is absolutely opposed to \u2018lifeline scholarships\u2019 or any other tuition voucher scheme,\u201d Richard Askey, President of the PSEA, said as the budget deadline neared in late June. Citing a ruling from a Pennsylvania court that stated the state had &#8220;unconstitutionally&#8221; failed to fund schools in poor communities, Askey called the voucher program a &#8220;distraction&#8221; and a &#8220;terrible idea&#8221; that would interfere with the state&#8217;s constitutional mandate to educate its youth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It is worth noting that in 2022, the PSEA made significant political contributions, donating over $1 million to Democratic candidates for the state legislature, as well as $775,000 to Shapiro and over $300,000 to Republican candidates.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-9096\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1688648178298000&#038;usg=AOvVaw10v0UGh9BJZV8inaPuI6t7\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro abandoned his $100 million school vouchers program in the state budget due to strong resistance from teachers unions and fellow Democrats. The Republican-led state Senate backed the program, but it faced obstacles in the Democratic state House. Despite including several Democratic priorities, like enhanced funding for schools, the budget no longer includes the contentious voucher initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":856,"featured_media":1965119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965118","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\/856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1965119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}