Pennsylvania lawmakers reach $47.6 billion budget deal, bringing sweeping changes to public education

HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Thursday’s $47.6 billion budget deal night after weeks of negotiations including sweeping changes to the higher education system and the way the state funds public schools.

Pennsylvania has increased spending on K-12 public schools by more than $1 billion in the next fiscal year, including several fresh initiatives to support all of the state’s school districts provide students with an equitable and relevant education. The full budget deal includes less spending than Shapiro requested earlier this year and invests less than public education advocates have said is necessary to make real changes to schools. But leaders insisted Thursday that the investments are a significant down payment on fixing decades of underfunding.

“Together we did this,” Shapiro said at a news conference overdue Thursday. “This is a tremendous victory, and I am committed to building on this progress for many years to come.”

According to the budget released Thursday, state spending will boost 6.2%, or $2.72 billion, compared with the previous fiscal year.

“People always say, ‘historic,’” said state Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee and negotiated the budget deal. “No, it is historic.”

Top legislative leaders in the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate, as well as Shapiro, a Democrat, negotiated the deal behind closed doors, without publicly disclosing what — or how much — leaders would be willing to spend on education increases. Pennsylvania now has a surplus of more than $15 billion, built on COVID-19 relief funds and higher-than-expected revenues.

Ultimately, leaders agreed to dip into state coffers and spend more than $3 billion above projected revenues because the state is likely to overspend this year and in future years.

Among the major changes in higher education are the creation of a fresh board of higher education and two fresh scholarship programs aimed at stemming the “brain drain” and population decline in Pennsylvania. The fresh scholarship programs include a merit scholarship for out-of-state students attending Pennsylvania schools and an annual $5,000 scholarship for students who promise to complete their degree and take a “desirable” job in Pennsylvania after graduation for each year they receive the scholarship.

“We’ve been focused on what we can do to turn around this depressed economy and turn around the demographic decline in Pennsylvania,” state Sen. Scott Martin (R., Lancaster), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said during a floor speech. “Planting the seeds that will move us in that direction will bear fruit for years to come.”

The budget was supposed to be ready by July 1, the start of the fresh fiscal year. The delay has had little impact on state operations. Shapiro signed the main spending bill at a news conference Thursday evening, as well as companion private bills that had been fast-tracked by the Legislature earlier in the day.

“We feel good, we have a busy day ahead, and we’ll talk more about the details later,” Shapiro told The Inquirer on Thursday afternoon in a hallway at the state Capitol before unveiling part of the budget at a legislative committee hearing.

Lawmakers approved dozens of fresh initiatives — from a $20 million program to promote Pennsylvania’s Main Streets, $2.5 million to support provide emergency housing and $56.5 million in grants for violence intervention and prevention — all aimed at improving the lives of state residents.

However, the budget deal had some flaws, according to supporters who have been lobbying lawmakers for months to make key investments.

For example, SEPTA has not been promised a fresh dedicated funding stream, as requested by the transit system. Instead, they set aside $53 million in one-time funds. Public education advocates who won the landmark case also did not receive as much funding or a multiyear promise as they said was needed, and they warned they would go back to court if leaders did not take the issue seriously in future budgets.

Democratic and Republican leaders have stressed that the state budget does not achieve everything they wanted but is a reality of governing in divided government, with one party controlling the House and the other controlling the Senate. Pennsylvania is the only state with a divided legislature.

“This is not a perfect product. This is not a perfect budget,” said Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Ind.). “This is the product of divided government.”

Education funding has been the biggest sticking point in budget negotiations after the state Court of Common Pleas ruled last year that Pennsylvania’s education system was unconstitutional, finding it discriminated against destitute and wealthy school districts. More than $1 billion in fresh funding for K-12 education ultimately made it into the budget, which Harris called “a good down payment on what is necessary for education in the state of Pennsylvania.”

Public education advocates have asked Pennsylvania to allocate $850 million in fresh K-12 funding this year, on top of the $7.9 billion the state already spends, to meet a Commonwealth Court mandate. Instead, only $500 million of the $1 billion in fresh education funding will go toward that goal. Those advocates, who led an effort to sue the state over its current funding system, warned Wednesday they would consider filing another lawsuit if the budget fails to address their concerns.

“Students need public schools that provide the support they need to achieve meaningful opportunities today, not some distant day in the future,” wrote leaders from the Education Law Center and the Public Interest Law Center, who won the landmark case. “And the same budget law that acknowledges that the Commonwealth has a constitutional deficit still leaves nearly 90 percent of that gap to be filled at some future date, or not at all.