A bipartisan agreement on a school voucher program would have allocated 100 million dollars so parents with children attending the lowest performing schools in the state could choose to send them to private and religious schools instead.
Senate Republicans worked it into their budget and the idea had Governor Shapiro’s backing. But House Democrats refused to go along, the teacher’s union objected and the governor changed direction.
He used a line item veto to kill the proposal.
The two biggest public-school districts in the state spend around 20-thousand dollars per student to achieve low proficiency in English and math of about 35 and 15 percent.
That’s indefensible.
To put the voucher plan into perspective, 100 million dollars is about 1 percent of the state’s 8.4-billion-dollar budget for education.
The governor says he considers vouchers unfinished business. We call on him to follow through and for Republicans to keep holding his feet to the fire.