Shapiro touts education spending, demurs on consolidation

(The Center Square) — Gov. Josh Shapiro continued his tour across Pennsylvania to celebrate the $1.1 billion increase in education funding included in the state budget, stopping at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School in Bucks County.

“Every student should have the opportunity to chart their own course and succeed,” Shapiro said. “This budget builds on our progress by boosting investments in student teacher stipends, mental health resources, and essential school repairs while also improving how we allocate funding, with a new formula that directs dollars to the schools that need them most.”

School officials thanked Shapiro for his work and spoke of what they would get done with the $5.7 million the district will receive, $200,000 more than last year.

“For a district like Morrisville, this budget means additional dollars and investments, which our district greatly needs,” Superintendent Andrew Doster said. “The passage of the 2024-25 budget means additional dollars for staff, books, safety and security measures for students, increases in basic education funding, investments in student mental health, free breakfasts for students, increases in special education funding, cybercharter reimbursement, student health, and early childhood learning.”

Though recent years have had strong partisan fights over education spending, with Republicans pushing for school choice while Democrats threatening a revolt if Shapiro struck a deal, the governor downplayed disagreements.

“Folks basically want the same four things,” Shapiro said. “They want really good schools for their kids and grandkids. They want safe communities to live in so when their kid walks to and from school, they get home safe at the end of the night. They want economic opportunity in their communities so as their kids and grandkids grow up, they can stay in the community that raised them. And they want their freedoms and rights protected. We may all have different ways of trying to get there … but those basic, commonsense Pennsylvania principles are what guide my work every single day.”

He also summarized the decades-long fight over education as something that went unsolved “because politicians tend to fight over things and not actually move the ball down the field.”

Khalid Mumin, secretary of education, argued that the commonwealth’s schools are “poised for greatness” with the extra money coming in.

“Our investments for today will pay dividends tomorrow,” he said.

As Pennsylvania’s student population shrinks in some areas and grows in others, though, the governor isn’t in a hurry to push something like consolidation.

“I don’t believe in dictating to school districts that they need to merge or push them to do that,” Shapiro said. “I do believe in being there as a support system if the school district makes that decision.”