Pennsylvania State Education Association

Week of 11-10-2025

Inside this issue

• State budget finally passes with another historic public school funding increase
• Happy American Education Week!
• PSEA regional food drives supplement missing SNAP payments
• Member Benefits spotlight: Holiday theme park giveaway ends soon!
• PEARL & Center for Professional Learning

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After a long delay, the PA Legislature has approved a 2025-26 state budget, and Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed it into law.

This budget delivers major gains for Pennsylvania’s public schools, including:

• A $565 million increase for public schools, which is the second installment in the adequacy and tax equity payments needed to fix Pennsylvania’s unconstitutional school funding system.
• A $105 million increase in basic education funding for all public schools.
• A $40 million increase in special education funding for all public schools.
• $178 million in cyber charter tuition savings for public school districts.
• $30 million for the student teacher stipend program to pay student teachers for the work they do during their 12-week student teaching experience.

While no one is thrilled that it took four months to get this budget done, at the end of the day, PSEA prevailed. Pro-public education lawmakers prevailed. Gov. Shapiro prevailed. We beat tuition vouchers. Again. And we will have a state budget that makes historic investments in public education which amount to a $2.14 billion increase since Gov. Shapiro took office in 2023.

Since he was sworn in as governor, Josh Shapiro has worked with legislators in both parties to secure more than $2 billion in new public school funding to help students across Pennsylvania. This commonsense leadership is creating smaller class sizes, expanding early childhood education, and directing historic resources to our most underfunded schools.

Even in the face of attacks on public education throughout the country, Pennsylvania has shown what we can achieve with a bi-partisan vision for the future that values our students, schools, and educators.

This responsible, balanced state budget makes crucial investments in our public schools and communities. It reflects a spirit of compromise, while remaining true to the state’s commitment to fixing our unconstitutional public school funding system and supporting this year’s class of student teachers.

This is how your state senator and state representative voted on the budget. 

Now that this budget is final, we hope that the commonwealth will expedite state funding payments to all public schools so that they can continue to meet the education needs of their students.

American Education Week is next week, Nov. 17-21. It’s our favorite time to highlight all the incredible work you do each day in your schools and recognize our amazing PSEA members. Members like Terri Boileau, a STEM teacher in the Pennsbury School District, who is featured in the above video.

As a reminder, here’s the schedule for next week:

Monday, November 17
Kickoff Day 

Tuesday, November 18
Family Day 

Wednesday, November 19
Education Support Professionals Day

Thursday, November 20
Educator for a Day

Friday, November 21
Substitute Educators Day 

For resources, giveaways, and inspiration on how you can make the most of this week, visit psea.org/aew. And thank you for everything you do, this week, and every other throughout the year.

Pennsylvanians who receive SNAP benefits lost them on Nov. 1 because of the federal government shutdown. This means that more than 2 million Pennsylvanians will go hungry.

PSEA knows that childhood hunger is already a major issue facing our public schools and that the loss of SNAP benefits will only make success at school harder for students facing food insecurity. That is why members in PSEA’s Northeastern Region hosted a food drive during their region leadership conference on Nov. 7 and 8. Together, members donated 665 hygiene and non-perishable food items and collected $730 for local food pantries.

To help keep children in York County fed, educators across 17 school districts in PSEA’s Southern Region donated three large pallets of non-perishable food for to the York County Food Bank on Nov. 12 as the federal government shutdown was nearing an end. The York County Coordinating Council donated $2,500.

Thank you, PSEA Northeastern and Southern Regions, for your generosity to your local communities.

To find local food banks in your area, visit www.feedingpa.org

Enter by Nov. 16 for a chance to win two Holiday event tickets to any theme park of your choice. No purchase necessary.

Courtesy of PSEA Member Benefits. Enter here

TERMS & CONDITIONS

To be eligible to win, you must be signed up for your discount program. Enter to win by visiting your discount program website Nov. 4-16, 2025 (starts and ends at midnight MST) and simply sign in. Maximum of one entry per day. The more days you visit, the more chances you have to win. Winner will be notified via email and phone by Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. The winner must respond back to claim their winnings no later than Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. If there is no response, an alternate winner will be chosen. Once the winner has claimed/ accepted, an Access representative will work with them to purchase two holiday event passes from the theme park of their choosing (up to $500 including taxes and fees) from inventory on their discount program website on their requested dates on or before Dec. 31, 2025. Passes will be emailed out digitally. Giveaway is fulfilled and sponsored by Access V.G. LLC. Giveaway eligibility includes all participating Access V.G. LLC client/discount programs. No purchase necessary to win. Void where prohibited. By participating in this giveaway, participants agree to release, indemnify, and hold harmless Access V.G. LLC and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from any and all liability, claims, or actions of any kind arising out of or related to their participation in the giveaway or the receipt, use, or misuse of any prize awarded.

PEARL

Visit PEARL today and choose from more than 95 asynchronous courses available for Act 48 credit and Chapter 14 verification.

You can find multiple courses that interest you in any of these tracks: 

• Book Studies
• Educational Equity
• Pedagogy
• Policy
• Pupil Services
• Special Populations
• Technology in Education
• SEL & Wellness

Webinars

• From Classroom to Career: Strengthening Educator Support & Development
  • Nov. 18, 7-8:30 p.m.
• From Paper to Pixels in 2026: Your Complete Guide to PA’s Online Standardized Assessments
  • Nov. 19, 7-8:30 p.m.
• Collaborating, Communicating, and Connecting to Build Strong School Teams
  • Dec. 11, 7-8:30 p.m.

Book Discussions

• Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Students to Engage the World
  
  • Dec. 3, 7-8 p.m.

Postgraduate Credits

Earn postgraduate credits from PennWest University for $70 each!

More than 150 postgraduate credits are available across a wide range of teaching and learning topics.

These postgraduate credits (micro-credentials) can count toward the 24 credits required for a Level II certificate and also may count toward salary advancement.*

For support professionals, these courses may meet Chapter 14 requirements.**

*Check your contract to determine if you can apply standalone postgraduate credits for column movement.
**Seek approval from your employer prior to completing hours to apply toward Chapter 14 requirements.