Thrust into the national spotlight as a leading candidate to challenge vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris for vice president, Gov. Josh Shapiro is facing criticism from groups that both support and oppose expanding public funding for alternatives to classic public schools.
Since his campaign for governor two years ago, Shapiro has repeatedly said he supports expanding programs in Pennsylvania that operate taxpayer money to assist families cover the costs of education, including tuition at private and religious schools.
But after President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would not seek reelection and support for Harris’ nomination surged, Shapiro, a moderate Democrat with a history of success at several levels of government and wide popularity in a key swing state, faced a chance to run for vice president.
In response, political groups that oppose Shapiro’s school choice policies or say he has not kept his campaign promises took their message to a broader national audience.
The conservative Commonwealth Foundation is broadcasting TV advertisement starting this weekend in Pennsylvania and Washington, DC, media outlets are turning Shapiro’s “Get Shit Done” slogan on its head and claiming Shapiro has “nothing done.”
The ads criticize Shapiro’s record, saying he is the least effective Pennsylvania governor in 50 years, but they emphasize Shapiro’s decision to veto the Republican plan to fund scholarships for the lowest-performing public school students in the state.
The group also took out full-page ads in The Washington Post and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel during the Republican National Convention and plans to run an ad in the Chicago Tribune during the Democratic National Convention next month.
“It’s definitely in the spotlight now, and we’re moving to where the spotlight is,” Erik Telford, senior vice president at the Commonwealth Foundation, told the Capital-Star.
“Since he was forced to veto his own promise … his rhetoric has changed to pointing the finger at the legislature and saying he has to deal with a divided legislature,” Telford said, adding that in addition to the vouchers, Shapiro has failed to deliver on his commitments regarding speed reductions in net state corporate income taxes or negotiate an alternative to the contested regional carbon trading agreement.
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A grassroots coalition of public education advocates led by the Network for Public Education Action (NPE) released an open letter to Harris this week urging her not to elect Shapiro and saying he supports “education policies that reflect Project 2025,” conservative presidential transition plan promoted by the Heritage Foundation.
Among the more than two dozen groups that signed the letter were Pittsburgh-based 412 Justice and its educational justice arm, the Education Rights Network.
Carol Burris, executive director of NPE, said Shapiro’s support for expanding programs that currently operate public money to fund private education is puzzling, given that support for public education is a core Democratic value.
Burris said Shapiro nonetheless refused to engage in talks or withdraw support for the vouchers when allies asked.
“Kamala Harris has a lot of candidates to choose from,” Burris told the Capital-Star. “They’re all staunch allies and friends of public education, and they’re all anti-voucher.”
Asked about Shapiro’s latest stance on vouchers, the spokesman touted the administration’s record on increasing funding for public education in the 2024-25 state budget.
“During his time in office, Governor Shapiro consistently delivered historic increases in funding for public education and finally, after decades of inaction, led Pennsylvania to adequately and fairly fund our public schools,” spokesman Manuel Bonder said in a statement. “Despite being the only governor in the country with a divided legislature — and despite bad faith attacks from all sides — Josh Shapiro championed public education and delivered real results.”
Bonder noted that Shapiro has increased support for public education in the last two budgets, including the largest investment in state history, increasing total funding for K-12 schools by $1.1 billion.
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During the 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Shapiro’s positions on education stood in stark contrast to those of his Republican opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), who has spoken of drastically reducing per-pupil funding and eliminating property taxes, which school districts rely on for much of their budgets. A group of statewide school board members called Mastriano’s plan “dangerously detached from reality with the immense majority of parents in Pennsylvania.”
Shapiro, then attorney general, touted his support for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state that led to a historic 2023 ruling that found Pennsylvania’s education funding system unconstitutional. He called for more spending on public education while supporting legislation to provide “Lifeline scholarships” to students in the bottom 15% of schools based on reading and math scores.
While Shapiro supported the scholarship application It surprised some peopleHe also had the support of Philadelphia Democratic state lawmakers Sen. Dwight Evans and Rep. Amen Brown. And while the state teachers union opposed Lifeline grants, it still supported Shapiro for governor.
When Senate Republicans included the scholarships, then renamed the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success, in their response to Shapiro’s first fiscal 2023 budget proposal, House Democrats, who fiercely opposed the program, killed it. The finger-pointing began, with Shapiro saying Senate Republican leaders failed to negotiate with Democratic House leaders. Shapiro agreed to veto a $100 million line item to win House approval of the spending bill.
The latest budget, signed by Shapiro on July 11, does not include a modern voucher program, but it does include a $75 million enhance in two existing tax breaks for businesses and individuals that fund scholarship programs for public school students.
Burris of the Network for Public Education said there is concern among public school advocates that Shapiro’s support for the voucher program stems from ties to conservative substantial donor and school choice advocate Jeff Yass. Spotlight PA reported that Shapiro received contributions from a political action committee funded by Yass before and during his first campaign for attorney general in 2016.
“If none of this is true, Shapiro should make a statement that he does not support vouchers,” Burris said.
