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MONTGOMERYVILLE, PA (August 20, 2025) — At a press conference in Montgomeryville today, Pennsylvania State Education Association leaders called on state senators in Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties to pass a REAL FY 2025-26 state budget that makes critical investments in our public schools — including the second installment in the multiyear school funding adequacy plan.

They also urged Sens. Frank Farry, Tracy Pennycuick, and Joe Picozzi to reject any efforts to tie budget passage to a tuition voucher scheme that will send taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.

Earlier this month, state Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward said on a radio show that she is holding up the state budget until lawmakers agree to her plan to send millions of our tax dollars to private and religious schools.

“Our kids are not bargaining chips,” PSEA President Aaron Chapin said. “Our kids are not pawns in some grand strategy to enact a tuition voucher scheme that will shift taxpayer dollars away from our public schools and send them to private and religious schools.”

Chapin called on Sens. Farry, Pennycuick, and Picozzi to do the right thing and pass a 2025-26 state budget that invests in Pennsylvania’s public schools, where 90% of students learn.

Budget delay freezes state funding

The 2025-26 state budget is more than seven weeks overdue. The new fiscal year began on July 1.

The extended delay means school districts, intermediate units, and other school entities are not receiving regular monthly funding payments from the state.

Missed payments during July and August amount to $1.75 billion statewide, including $56.5 million in Sen. Farry’s district, $76.2 million in Sen. Pennycuick’s district, and $465.3 million in Sen. Picozzi’s district (see below for more details).

“Our educators and support professionals are worried about what it could mean for our schools and our students now and in the weeks to come — if our state legislators do not come to an agreement,” said educator Bill McGill, president-elect of PSEA’s Mideastern Region and a member of the Perkiomen Valley Education Association.

Vouchers would be a mistake

Chapin and McGill noted that private school vouchers would siphon millions of our taxpayer dollars away from public schools and direct them to private and religious schools.

“School vouchers have proven to be expensive failures everywhere they have been tried,” McGill said. “We do not need to repeat others’ mistakes here in Pennsylvania.”

Michigan State researcher Josh Cowen found that the learning losses from voucher programs in Louisiana and Ohio were worse than those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that learning losses from programs in Washington, D.C., and Indiana were on par with those caused by Hurricane Katrina.

“Vouchers fail to deliver for the kids who are most in need,” Chapin said.

Time to pass a budget

Chapin, McGill, and other education leaders delivered letters to Sen. Farry, Sen. Pennycuick, and Sen. Picozzi asking whether they agree with Sen. Ward’s plan to use Pennsylvania students as bargaining chips in a push to send Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.

“Teachers are setting up their classrooms; parents are going back-to-school shopping; and kids are gearing up for that first day of school,” Chapin said. “But our lawmakers in Harrisburg still haven’t gotten their summer work done.

“Sen. Pennycuick, Sen. Farry, and Sen. Picozzi, the students and families in your districts need you to stand up for them and finalize a budget that invests in Pennsylvania’s public schools, where 90% of students learn.”

Impact by school entity

Below is a list of school entities in Sen. Farry’s, Pennycuick’s, and Picozzi’s districts and the amount of state funding they should have received but did not in July and August payments:

Sen. Frank Farry (Senate District #6)

Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (Senate District #24)

Sen. Joe Picozzi (Senate District #5)

Chapin is a Stroudsburg Area middle school teacher and president of PSEA. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents about 177,000 active and retired educators and school employees, aspiring educators, higher education staff, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.