Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, started his first summer in the Pennsylvania Legislature in the same way his predecessor did—with a late budget.
The budget deadline is June 30 but didn’t make it to the Governor’s desk until nearly a month later, on Aug. 30. The process isn’t complete, though. While the budget allots money, direction on how to spend that allocation is passed through important code bills. The Republican-controlled state Senate convened in late August to pass some code bills, but not all, and they still have to make it through the Democrat-controlled House.
Lawmakers are split on many issues, but the key issue is one no one saw coming—school vouchers.
School vouchers would allow students from the bottom-performing school districts around the state to attend private schools free of tuition. Democrats in the House are diametrically opposed to the idea, saying it will hurt public schools, even though Shapiro has supported them since before coming into office. Shapiro line-item vetoed school vouchers to get the budget through, in a move that Senate Republicans decried as a betrayal.
Private school vouchers went through name change after name change during budget season, starting with Lifeline Scholarships, a campaign promise from Shapiro, then switching to Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) Scholarships.
PASS Scholarships were once again pushed through by the Senate while they enacted code bills. The Senate website says they won’t reconvene until Sept. 18, with the House waiting to reconvene until Sept. 26.
The deadlock over school vouchers could be a telling sign of what’s to come with the state’s divided legislature. Shapiro has condemned partisanship and asked both chambers to work together, but words only go so far.
School vouchers also play into a landmark state Supreme Court ruling in February that said the way Pennsylvania funds its public school districts is unconstitutional. The legislature is under court order to change their funding.
House Democrat leaders say school vouchers will take away funding and that money should go into the schools. Senate Republican leaders say pouring money into a problem isn’t going to help.
The budget stall was a rare moment of negative press for Shapiro, who has worked to posit himself as a bipartisan leader. By breaking with his party over vouchers, then vetoing vouchers at the last hour, he drew disfavor from both sides.
It’s not the only struggle in a sharply divided legislature.
A two-year window for child sex abuse survivors to sue their abuser in civil court became trapped in an ugly bipartisan battle. The window was intended to help survivors in the wake of the 2018 Roman Cataholic clergy sexual abuse grand jury investigation. Survivors who aged out of the statute of limitations but who were encouraged by others coming forward would be able to find justice for their abusers through the two-year window.
Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) made the window his priority during his short-lived tenure as Speaker. Rozzi said Shapiro told him the window was a priority. But as voters make their way to the polls in November, the window will not be on the ballot.
The House passed the window two ways, as a constitutional amendment and as a piece of legislation, earlier this year.
The Senate took the constitutional amendment and packaged it with two other amendments, one on increased ID for state voters and another that would make it easier for the legislature to regulate executive action.
The House stripped the amendments and sent it back to the Senate, where it remains.
Calls to action on several other issues occurred this summer like laws to regulate gun usage and increase adult mental health funding also reached a partisan stall. Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the House, while Republicans have a more comfortable six-seat majority.
