Pennsylvania Vouchers From Milton Friedman to Jay-Z

The coalition for school choice expands in the Keystone State. Will Gov. Shapiro fight for poor families this time?

WSJ editorial. 

"As the Pennsylvania Legislature hurries to wrap up its budget before a June 30 deadline, the battle for school choice has resumed. But this is not your father’s voucher fight. Those lining up behind the push for choice include several dozen black pastors along with the famous rappers Jay-Z and Meek Mill.

This month Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation announced it is supporting the campaign for school choice in the Keystone State. Roc Nation says “we are supporters of the public school system,” but that opposing vouchers is in effect “telling Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable students that they must remain captive to a system that is not working for them.”

Milton Friedman couldn’t have put it better when he proposed vouchers more than a half century ago. Roc Nation then spells out the ugly educational results in Pennsylvania:

“According to the 2023 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), roughly 75 percent of eighth-grade students in the Pennsylvania public school system aren’t proficient in math while 47 percent aren’t proficient in language arts. Furthermore, in the bottom 15 percent of the state’s public schools, the data reveals that less than 10 percent of students are proficient in math, and only 25 percent are proficient in English. In 40 schools across the state, there were no students—absolutely none—that met the grade-level proficiency criteria in math.”

Those numbers should be shocking to anyone who cares about those students, as well as the fate of America. They should also demand a change from the status quo

Yet last year Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro reneged on the support for vouchers he expressed in his 2022 campaign for Governor, bowing without a fight to opposition from teachers unions and the Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House. He said he’d line-item veto the education scholarships—from $2,500 to $10,000 with up to $15,000 for special needs—if they were in the final package.

This year the forces for choice are back with a broader coalition. The measure Mr. Shapiro killed last summer would have provided $100 million in scholarships. Though there’s no specific estimate so far, this time proponents are pushing for $300 million to start the program.

Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children acknowledges that only students in the worst 15% of schools would be eligible for a scholarship. That’s well short of the universal choice measures that have passed in about a dozen states.

But children in the worst schools need the most urgent help, and the bill would be a big step in a state with a Democratic Governor and House. In progressive states like New York, Illinois and New Jersey, the unions own the Legislature and the Governors.

Gov. Shapiro is often touted as having White House potential. But by wimping out on school choice last summer, he missed a moment to side with parents over unions. Maybe Jay-Z could set him straight."