PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Randolph Career and Technical High School Friday to tout his proposed budget for education.
The governor's budget proposal includes $75 million more for basic education funding and another $526 million to districts with the highest needs through an adequacy formula.
At Randolph, Shapiro talked with students learning auto repair, construction, EMS and culinary arts. In the school's kitchen, students were preparing crab cakes, french fries and beverages.
"The program here gave me and other students the opportunity to be one step closer to the career we want in life," said Samiyah Gulphin, a Randolph senior studying health technology, in remarks after the governor's tour. "I appreciate the funding by the state of Pennsylvania and I hope it continues to fund these programs, the CTE programs, so that other students can have a similar experience like I did here."
The governor said his proposed budget would help students like Gulphin.
"I made it a point to significantly increase funding for STEM and Vo-tech because I believe when a student goes to school they should be in a place where they can prepare for the future that they chose," Shapiro said.
Shapiro believes his education proposal will largely survive budget negotiations with the Democratic House and Republican Senate.
"We've come back with the same figure we agreed upon last year to continue those investments, and I feel confident we're going to be able to get that done through a divided legislature," Shapiro said. "We're all committed to investing in education. We all made the deal to do that last year, and I'm confident we'll be able to get it done again this year."