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SCOTT TOWNSHIP, PA (August 19, 2025) — At a press conference in Scott Township today, Pennsylvania State Education Association leaders called on Sen. Rosemary Brown and her fellow state senators to pass a REAL FY 2025-26 state budget that makes critical investments in our public schools — including the Year 2 payment of the long-term school funding adequacy plan.

They also urged Sen. Brown 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 Vice President Jeff Ney 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.”

Ney called on Sen. Brown 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. It was due on June 30.

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 more than $89 million in Sen. Brown’s Senate 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 Sen. Brown and other lawmakers in Harrisburg do not come to an agreement,” said educator Mike Soskil, the vice president of PSEA’s Northeastern Region and a member of the Wallenpaupack Area Education Association.

Vouchers would be a mistake

Ney and Soskil 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,” Soskil 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,” Ney said. “Is that something that Sen. Brown wants? Is that something that Pennsylvanians want?”

Time to pass a budget

Ney, Soskil, and other education leaders delivered a letter to Sen. Brown asking whether she agrees 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,” Ney said. “But our lawmakers in Harrisburg still haven’t gotten their summer work done.

“Sen. Brown, the students and families in your district 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. Brown’s district and the amount of state funding they should have received but did not in July and August payments:

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.