Some public education advocates are pushing against Josh Shapiro as Harris’ VP pick because he supports school vouchers

A network of more than two dozen public education advocacy groups from across the country published a letter Wednesday night urging Vice President Kamala Harris not to select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate because of his support for private school vouchers.

School vouchers, which provide parents with state funding to send children to private schools, are an issue on which Shapiro has agreed to compromise with Republicans since becoming governor.

Shapiro has said he supports vouchers, with the caveat that it must be paired with increases in public education funding so that money is not being diverted away from public schools. Pennsylvania just enacted sweeping changes to how it funds its public schools, including a more than $1 billion increase, in an effort to offer students an equitable and adequate education.

But his openness to vouchers could be a potential roadblock to his consideration as a vice presidential nominee.

The Democratic Party’s platform opposes vouchers. Public school advocates and many Democratic politicians argue that school choice programs siphon critical money away from public schools.

“We respectfully ask you not to select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has supported education policies mirroring Project 2025,” the letter states, referring to conservative policy proposals for a second term under former President Donald Trump spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation.

Two Pennsylvania groups, 412 Justice and Education Rights Network, both based in Pittsburgh, signed on to the letter. Advocates from at least a dozen states signed on to the letter, including from several other battleground states.

The groups called on Harris to instead choose North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, or Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, citing their support for public education.

In contrast, the letter states, Shapiro “has supported voucher schemes pushed by well-funded billionaires from Pennsylvania like Jeffrey Yass.” Yass is Pennsylvania’s richest man and has spent millions of dollars advocating for states to enact private school voucher programs.

Pam Harbin, who co-founded the Education Rights Network and served on the Pittsburgh Public School Board from 2019 through last year, said she and other public education advocates have a “hard stance against vouchers.”

“So any candidate that is aligning with a far-right policy agenda is probably not going to be supported by our members,” she said.

However, several Pennsylvania Democrats and public education advocates have come to Shapiro’s defense.

State Rep. Peter Schweyer (D., Lehigh), who chairs the state House Education Committee and identified himself as one of the “most anti-voucher legislators in Pa.,” highlighted several of Shapiro’s major public education victories. Those include student-teacher stipends, building repair funds, and major public education funding increases.

“We would be beyond lucky to have Josh Shapiro as our vice president,” Schweyer wrote.

Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, noted historic funding increases for public education under Shapiro’s leadership.

“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 added.

Republicans most often support voucher and school choice policies, which were pushed by Trump’s former education secretary, Betsy DeVos. School choice proponents largely believe that school vouchers offer students in struggling public schools a path to opportunity. They are also a core tenet of Project 2025.

Shapiro, who attended a private Jewish school in Merion Station while growing up in Upper Dublin Township and whose children attend private school, showed interest in using public dollars to send students in struggling schools to private ones while campaigning for governor — offering Republicans hope that Shapiro would be willing to work across the aisle on the issue.

After he became governor last year, Shapiro helped design a $100 million school voucher program with Senate GOP leaders, shocking the teachers unions that had supported his candidacy. But Democrats, who hold a narrow majority in the House, would not support the proposal, leading Shapiro to veto it — and he angered both parties in the process.

Teachers unions, meanwhile, were angered over his proposal. And Shapiro narrowly avoided a rebuke from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for his support of vouchers.

Funding for vouchers was under consideration in the state’s 2024 budget, too, but no deal was reached.

Lawmakers instead opted to expand existing tax credit programs that help families send their children to private schools. The issue continues to loom over the state legislature, and is expected to resurface again.

Teachers unions nationwide, meanwhile, have already voiced strong support for Harris’ presidential campaign. The American Federation of Teachers voted Monday to endorse her. Notably, no teachers unions signed on to the letter against Shapiro as of Thursday evening.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers said in a statement this week, after the AFT endorsement, the union would “ensure Pennsylvania once again blocks Trump.”

And Harris spoke at the union’s convention in Houston on Thursday.

Harris, who called herself a “proud product of public education,” spent much of her speech touting her campaign platform and Biden-Harris administration policies on unions and education, including its student loan forgiveness program.

Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.