A national coalition of education justice groups are urging Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, not to choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate due to his support for taxpayer-funded school vouchers.
Advocates for public education say voucher programs funnel much needed funding away from public schools and into private religious schools as well as for-profit startups that often don’t perform well and tend to close after just a few years.
On the other side of the debate over vouchers is the school privatization movement. Largely funded by billionaires, the movement has worked with the Republican Party to establish and expand universal school voucher programs in at least 10 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Betsy DeVos, former President Trump’s education secretary, is famously one of those billionaire backers of voucher programs. In Shapiro’s home state of Pennsylvania, Republican megadonor Jeffrey Yass faced protests after spending millions of dollars promoting school vouchers and GOP candidates such as Lou Barletta, who lost to MAGA extremist Doug Mastriano in the 2020 Republican primary for governor. Mastriano, a controversial doomsday Christian, lost to Shapiro.
A centrist and relatively popular governor of a key swing state, Shapiro is considered a top candidate to join Harris on the Democratic ticket now that President Joe Biden has bowed out of the race. Shapiro has secured public school funding increases while in office. Still, advocates in Pennsylvania and beyond say Democrats cannot risk elevating an apparent supporter of school privatization to national office at a time when public education faces an existential threat from conservatives.
In an open letter sent to Harris last week, more than two dozen education and racial justice groups said Shapiro has supported education privatization policies “mirroring” Project 2025, the far right blueprint for a Trump administration that proposes dismantling the Department of Education along with bedrock civil rights protections for public school students.
“The Heritage Foundation and other radical extremist organizations have declared war on public schools in America — and by doing so, they’ve set their sights on the end of democracy itself,” the groups wrote. “Through Project 2025, they have made it abundantly clear the end goal of gutting public education and privatizing what is left via irresponsible voucher systems like those in Florida and Arizona.”
The coalition includes the Network For Public Education Action, the Alliance for Educational Justice, and community groups such as 412 Justice in Pittsburgh, where racial justice organizers are pushing back against the latest round of proposed school closures.
Shapiro angered education activists, teachers unions and fellow Democrats last summer when he backed a proposal from Republican lawmakers to create school voucher system in Pennsylvania that would have provided $100 million taxpayer funding for students in low-achieving districts to spend at private schools. Shapiro was forced to veto the proposal after Democratic lawmakers came out against it.
The debate over vouchers is particularly volatile in Pennsylvania, where last year a state judge ruled that the system for funding public schools based largely on property taxes violates the rights of students by creating a massive inequality between wealthy and poor districts. Without proper funding, lower-income schools struggle to pay teachers as class sizes explode.
Fellow Democrats in Pennsylvania point out that Shapiro secured $1 billion in new funding for public schools to address budget shortfalls and decades of unequal funding. Facing backlash over the voucher proposal, Shapiro said he would only support school vouchers if funding is not taken away from public schools as a result. However, critics argue that all taxpayer funding earmarked for education should go to public schools, and voucher programs necessarily reduce the amount of money available.
Manuel Bonder, spokesman for Shapiro, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the governor delivered “historic increases” in public school funding after years of inaction by lawmakers.
“Despite being the only governor in the nation with a divided legislature — and despite bad faith attacks from all sides — Josh Shapiro has been a champion for public education and delivered real results,” Bonder said.
That’s not enough for the education justice activists asking Harris to choose a different running mate. They say Democrats must stand by their principles, because the conservative ideologues pushing for school vouchers would “dismantle public education” nationwide if given power. In their letter to the vice president, the coalition of education advocates said Harris has better options, including Governors Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Private schools funded by vouchers do not have the same obligation as public schools to serve every student, and may discriminate based on religion or sexual orientation, for example. In Arizona, where Republicans approved a universal system that offers vouchers to all students regardless of family income, vouchers are overwhelmingly used by students who were already enrolled in private school. The system is draining the state’s budget while parents spend voucher money on activities, such as horseback riding and kayaking lessons, according to the National Education Association.
Damaris Allen, a parent of public school children and director of Voters for Strong Public Schools Florida, said the universal voucher system in the state is causing chaos. Schools across Florida are closing their doors as parents spend voucher funds on private schools, for-profit charter schools and homeschooling. According to Allen, parents in Florida are frustrated with public schools after years of underfunding, but the voucher system is only making the problem worse.
“The diversion of public funds to private schools is having a devastating impact on Florida students,” Allen said in a recent statement about the letter to the Harris campaign. “Every year $4 billion is diverted to private schools, most of which are not accredited.”
The school voucher program Shapiro initially supported in Pennsylvania would have benefited students from underperforming school districts, not thousands of private school students like in Arizona and Florida. However, with Project 2025 broadcasting the far right’s plans for dismantling public education and the voucher movement on the march in red states, advocates for public schools are not willing to give an inch.
Like other parents, Allen said Harris should tap a Democrat besides Shapiro for vice president.
“Our country deserves leadership [which] is willing to invest in public schools rather than perpetuate privatization at the expense of our future,” Allen said.
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