When state Rep. Mike Sturla, the second-longest-serving legislator in the House, announced his retirement this week, it came as a surprise to House Education Committee Chairman Peter Schweyer, who has served with him on the Elementary Education Funding Committee since last fall.
“He’s passionate. He’s a guy who cares about kids, he cares about families, he cares about working people,” Schweyer said, noting that Sturla was an “extraordinary voice” for the Lancaster School District.
Sturla (R-Lancaster) said Monday he will drop out of his re-election campaign and retire at the end of his term later this year.
He added that he plans to spend time with his wife and four newborn grandchildren after a 34-year career representing parts of Lancaster and surrounding communities.
Sturla told the Capital-Star Tuesday that he made the decision after weeks of deliberation after the state budget was passed. The $47.6 billion budget includes the first installment of $4.5 billion in fresh funding for the state’s least-wealthy school districts.
The fresh fair financing package is compromise with state Senate Republicans based on bipartisan recommendations Commission on Funding of Primary Educationwhich Sturla has led since 2023. While lawmakers will have to ensure future budgets include the remaining funding, Sturla said he is confident they can do so.
“I think we’ve done the hardest work. Does that mean it’s going to be easy every year? No, but there are still a lot of capable people in the Legislature,” Sturla said.
Sturla’s withdrawal less than three months before the Nov. 5 election leaves Democratic Party officials in the state and Lancaster County scrambling to find a replacement ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention and a Thursday deadline for the state Board of Elections to accept ballot additions.
Lancaster County Democratic Committee Chairman Tom O’Brien told the Capital-Star he is confident Sturla’s seat will go to another Democrat. The last-minute change comes at the end of a legislative session in which House Democrats were fighting to keep a majority of one seat in a series of special elections.
“This particular district is a very purple district and it leans Democratic,” O’Brien said.
Sturla won re-election to the 96th Congressional District, which covers northern Lancaster, East Petersburg and part of Manheim Township, with 22% of the vote in 2022.
Republican Eric Beezer is running for the seat on a platform of expanding access to medical marijuana. His delayed entry into the race and recent registration as a Democrat could have it cost him the support of Lancaster County RepublicansAs LancasterOnline reported in April.
O’Brien said the Lancaster County Democratic Committee is accepting applications from people interested in running for the party’s seat through Wednesday. Sturla’s county committee members will then meet remotely and vote on their choices. The committee will then send its recommendation to the state Democratic Committee for approval and to be added to the ballot.
Sturla, however, may have a successor in Nikki Rivera, the president of the Manheim school board.
Rivera, a high school Spanish teacher in Lititz, told the Capital-Star Tuesday that she approached Sturla a year ago about running for his seat when he was ready to retire. Since then, Rivera said, she has traveled to Harrisburg to watch campaign events and learn from Sturla.
Sturla said Rivera was one of the first people he called when he made his decision Sunday. Rivera said she also got a call from O’Brien asking if she would run, and she agreed.
With Gov. Josh Shapiro and the rest of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives committed to a fair funding plan, advocates hope the progress will continue to eliminate education funding shortfalls in the state.
Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center, which was one of the organizations that led a decade-long legal battle to recognize inequities in Pennsylvania public schools, said they were grateful for Sturla’s support.
“He helped lay the groundwork for a more equitable education funding system in Pennsylvania,” Gordon Klehr said, adding that the progress was the result of a collaborative effort among stakeholders.
Sturla said that when he filed for reelection, the budget negotiation process, which would ultimately include fresh school funding, had not yet begun. And while the compromise to provide money for the next nine years did not come with a guarantee, Sturla said advocates who fought for it will make sure the state follows through on its plans.
If lawmakers on either side fail to make a decision, advocates like the Education Law Center could return to the court with a roadmap for how to close those loopholes.
“At some point, you just have to say, ‘Now is the time,’” Sturla said of his decision. “In that belief that we’re always striving for a more perfect union, we’re never done.”
