Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro Caves to His Party on School Choice Program He Backed
“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.”
Pennsylvania’s Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro claimed to back school choice but caved when it came time to put his money where his mouth is.
Teacher unions and Democrats don’t want school choice, and Shapiro’s first loyalty is to them, not the parents and children of Pennsylvania.
FOX News reports:
Pennsylvania’s Democrat governor caves on school choice program he staunchly backed to appease his own party
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro made an unexpected move Wednesday when he gave into partisan squabbling in the state legislature over funding for school choice in order to appease members of his own party preventing the passage of a state budget.
“Last Friday, the Senate passed a responsible budget that delivers critical funding to our shared priorities and sent it to the House for its consideration. Now, we stand at an impasse largely over one provision of this budget, PASS Scholarships, a proposal I support that has been passed by the Senate but one that Leader [Matthew] Bradford has made clear does not have the support of the House,” Shapiro said in a statement…
A supporter of the funding and increasing school choice for Pennsylvanians, Shapiro had struck a deal with Republicans on what would be the state’s first-ever “voucher” program for private and religious schools, and insisted on including $100 million for it in the budget.
His move surprised state lawmakers and caused tensions within the Democratic Party that led to Democrats in the state House demanding $750 million more in aid for public schools that state Senate Republicans had not agreed to. State House Democrats voted down separate legislation to create the voucher program last week.
Promises made, promises not kept.
Governor Josh Shapiro said he supported private school choice and even put it in his education platform before the election.
He just sent out a statement indicating he will line-item veto the school choice program in the budget.
He played the parents of Pennsylvania. https://t.co/rGjW7bDkDj
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) July 5, 2023
Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro campaigned on private school lifeline scholarships for kids in the state's worst failing schools and touted them on national TV last week.
Now?
"I will line-item veto the full $100 million appropriation."
Unbelievable.https://t.co/gBeeQyFdfc
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 5, 2023
Of course, Shapiro sends his kids to private school.
NEW: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro caved to the teachers unions and announced he would line item veto $100M for school choice in the state's budget.
Meanwhile, he sends his kids to a $30K per year private school.
Read the @PAFreedomCaucus's statement in response. pic.twitter.com/eHxSnFLu5g
— State Freedom Caucus Network (@SFC_Network) July 6, 2023
Jeff Zymeri of National Review has more:
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.”
Is anyone surprised?
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
I think it’s safe to say “It’s all about the benjamins” when it comes to liberals.
Vouchers lead to fewer union members.
As do supreme court opinions. Re: Janus v. AFSCME, 2018, stated public labor unions cannot compel non-union members to pay dues or fees to the union – even if non-members benefit from collective bargaining.
Law of the land! Court has opinied! Law of the land!
Those teachers who continue to fund these execrable unions are the problem. They’re not required to fund the union, but they do. Those teachers are the problem.
Excellent observation. I would go so far as to say the state legislature should pass a bill that would ban public employee unions entirely.
Erronius
There are other benefits to being a union member such as tort insurance that is actually affordable on a teacher’s salary.
That said, there are usually alternatives for that.
When they say they’re acting on principal it’s unfortunately true.
Party unity n party loyalty uber alles, as the means to secure levers of govt, with the grift and graft that follow. The principles are self-advancement, and opportunism. Beats working if you can stomach it. And it’s a good grift if you can’t do anything of use.
This is what comes of letting Jr. High student govt types think they are clever, or important.
Now days… “Wilsons”… although he is in disfavor… the denomination isn’t.
That would make it about the Woodrows if we keep to the first name basis.
“It’s all about the Benjamins”
If Biden was Benjamin Button we would have a baby in the oval office.
Shapiro is likely screwed for the rest of his term: both Democrats and Republicans in the legislature now know that if he’s willing to cave on vouchers there’s little, if anything else, that he can’t/won’t cave on in the future.
A Democrat politician who lies? N0 way!
Yeah, I was surprised at the word “unexpected” in the reporting, not by Shapiro’s lying.
Gosh, you mean YET ANOTHER far left radical lied about being a ‘moderate’ to get elected?
And yet again RINO morons get played by ‘negotiating in good faith’, and giving up everything in return for nothing.
STOP GIVING DEMOCRATS THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT THAT THEY DON’T DESERVE
He wasn’t even in the middle of deploying the military to Saudi Arabia like Bush sr. was when he gave in on the no new taxes. Never forget that the Democrats were willing to shut down the government during that deployment.
Anyone who got fool by Shapiro should get a swift kick.
I knew he would cave in to the Cultural Marxists Seminaries.
It would be nice if the ‘take a chance on a moderate’ voting worked but it doesn’t. They always skew to the left and they always disappoint. They come with no shortage of excuses to tell you why they couldn’t keep their promises. Stop listening to the excuses of politicians who fail to ram through their central campaign promise.
Maybe I could give a pass IF they actually did everything in their power to get it done and came up a little short but most don’t even do that. Instead they whine about ‘conditions changing’, unfair tactics or fierce opposition or some other BS excuse for their failure.
Who knew that the demon-rats would lie their way to power then back down….especially shapiro who built his career on lies & innuendo….eg grand jury biased presentations.,an abuse of the justice system
Democrats assemble mobs and klans, because without them they can’t raise the critical testicular mass to act at all.
True, but the d/prog always seem to forget that once created the grievance mob takes on a life of its own outside the control of the creators. See Robespierre.
Of course he’s for school choice. He is in favor a boy arriving at school in the morning, and then choosing to see the school nurse, and returning home in the afternoon as a girl.
This guy is such a wimp.
Shapiro IIRC portaryed himse;lf as a committed Jewish parent who sent his kids to an expensive day school which charges a ton of money for tuition. He can’t stand on both sides of this issue as a national candidate -the Orthodox Jewish community will see right through this woke loyalty to the teachers’ union
All politicians lie in all campaigns. Democrats and their allies on the Left lie to us about everything, including loyalty to country and Constitution. Republicans almost 100% lie about opposing anything Democrats want, There are some few exceptions [who are hated by the GOPe]. but in general we have no opposition party in this country.
Subotai Bahadur
These people don’t “cave” on anything. They tell whatever lies they think will help them get elected — if they get elected, they follow the party line.
“Pennsylvania’s Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro claimed to back school choice but caved when it came time to put
histhe taxpayer’s money where his mouth is.Like every Democrat, make promises, then fail to fight for them.