ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Ahead of his budget address next month, Gov. Josh Shapiro stopped by Harrison-Morton Middle School on Friday to tout his administration’s $2 billion investment in public education over the last two years.
“When I think about opportunity in Pennsylvania, to me the foundation of all of that is how we treat our children and what type of education we provide to our kids,” he said.
Since the 2023-24 budget, Shapiro’s administration has invested $200 million in student-based mental health services, $63.2 million in universal free breakfast and $30 million in stipends for student teachers, like Taylor Hemdal, now a third-grade teacher at the Central Elementary STREAM Academy.
“It [meant] the world to my family to be able to keep us afloat while I was student teaching and not having a full-time secondary income.”Taylor Hemdal
Hemdal received a stipend through the state’s program when she was student-teaching in Allentown School District and working toward her elementary education certification at Kutztown University.
“It [meant] the world to my family to be able to keep us afloat while I was student teaching and not having a full-time secondary income,” she said at Friday’s news conference. “We were able to have a little bit of breathing room in our budget and keep my daughter in day care while I worked.”
Facilities investments, challenges
Shapiro’s administration has also invested $275 million on environmental repairs and upgrades over the last two years — of which ASD received $2.5 million to update its heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at Allen High School.
But Pennsylvania schools still face facilities challenges.
“There are billions of dollars of backlogged maintenance in this state, and this school I think epitomizes some of that challenge,” State Rep. Josh Siegel said, noting Harrison-Morton was built in 1874 when President Ulysses S. Grant was in office.
“No child should go to school where the air conditioning is opening a window on a hot day,” Siegel added.
“Kids can’t learn in 90-degree classrooms when they’re more likely to faint than they are to memorize the stuff in the textbook, or when lead paint falls on their heads at their desk, or asbestos breaks out of the wall.”
Harrison-Morton eighth grader Josh Colon-Hernandez attested to the air conditioning challenges at his school, and thanked state and district leaders for working to address this.
“We definitely see the outcome of what you guys are doing,” he said. “[At] Harrison-Morton, there has definitely been an issue with the air conditioning, but this summer we have gotten air conditioning in the gym and in the auditorium. And let’s just say it made the school year 10 million times easier.”
The district used one-time COVID-19 relief funding to add air conditioning to the school’s common spaces, but still most of the building struggles through the heat in warmer months.
“The need is real. It’s been real for decades,” said state Sen. Nick Miller, who previously served on the Allentown School Board. “Truly, it's not an environment that’s conducive to learning that our students deserve.”
Miller also highlighted the 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling that found Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional, putting students who live in neighborhoods with low incomes and low property values at a disadvantage.
He said this ruling and the state’s action in response are helping move education funding in the right direction.
Response to Commonwealth Court ruling
The Shapiro administration delivered the largest investment in K-12 public education in state history last year with a $1.1 billion increase, raising funding over $11 billion for the first time in Pennsylvania history.
Allentown School District saw $252.8 million in state funding in the 2024-25 budget — a $90 million increase from the year before Shapiro took office. The district received $20 million through the state’s new adequacy formula that supports school districts with the greatest need.
“All of the investments that we spoke about here in the Allentown School District are a result of my ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together to invest in public education. I'm confident we’ll be able to do that again in this next budget.”Gov. Josh Shapiro
“We changed the formula in the last budget and reached a bipartisan accord to do that,” Shapiro told reporters after Friday’s event.
“All of the investments that we spoke about here in the Allentown School District are a result of my ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together to invest in public education. I'm confident we’ll be able to do that again in this next budget.”
Shapiro said he anticipates another year of historic education investments, adding “there’s no question” that Republicans and Democrats will continue to work across the aisle on education funding.
When asked about President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to abolish the Department of Education, Shapiro said he wants to wait and see what the Republican leader actually does once in office.
“I’m not going to get hysterical about every press release they put out or every tweet they put out,” he said.
Shapiro also said he supports cutting spending and “putting more money into people’s pockets,” but added: “We can’t do anything that undermines local public education here in Pennsylvania.”
Allentown Superintendent Carol Birks, Interim Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Angela Fitterer and state Rep. Peter Schweyer also delivered remarks at Friday’s news conference.
Schweyer, an ASD parent, told LehighValleyNews.com that events like Friday's are important for highlighting the good work that’s already been done as the state heads into a monthslong budget process.
“I know that our school district’s doing great, I know that our kids are getting invested in, but I also need to continue to elevate the fact that it's just the start of turning the ship around, not just for Allentown, but for places across Pennsylvania,” he said.
Schweyer, who is also chairman of the House Education Committee, said it’s important to remember the historic education investment in last year’s budget was just the first step in a nine-year journey to fairly fund education.
“We will continue to hold all of our partners accountable to make sure that we keep up that bargain,” he said. “That deal that we cut last year, we shouldn’t have to negotiate that.”
“That’s the deal.”
