Before the end of the year, Governor Shapiro will need to indicate if he will opt Pennsylvania into the federal school voucher program included in Donald Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” or reject the program.

Many questions remain about how this program will work, who will benefit from it, and what mechanisms will be in place to prevent the waste, fraud, and abuse of tax dollars that flow through it.

But one thing is certain: The structure of Trump’s school voucher program is designed to expand privatized education and funnel tax dollars into intermediary organizations, not strengthen public schools. 

Click HERE To tell Governor Shapiro to reject Trump’s school voucher program.

Here’s some of what we know:

• Recent guidance from the U.S. Treasury indicates that Pennsylvania would have very little flexibility to establish its own rules or safeguards if Governor Shapiro opts in.
• Trump vouchers would be nearly universal, as the state would have no authority to direct dollars to students with the greatest needs.  With family income limits ranging from $204,000 in Forest County to $368,100 in Philadelphia and the collar counties, these dollars would be a trough of public funding available to pay for the private school tuition of all but the wealthiest families in the commonwealth.
• Trump vouchers would fuel discrimination against students. Pennsylvania would not be able to prohibit federal voucher dollars from funding private and religious schools that discriminate against their students or employees because of their disability, religion, academics, LGBTQ+ status, pregnancy or abortion, and more.
• Public school districts would receive no direct funding from the program. This program is specifically designed to provide individual students with money that they can use to pay for private school tuition and other goods and services. In narrow circumstances public school students may receive voucher funding from a scholarship granting organization to pay for fee-based services offered by their school district.  This is the only scenario where public schools would receive any voucher funding.
• A staggering 10% of the overall funding will NOT be used to pay for educational opportunities for students at all. Instead, these tax dollars will be siphoned into private intermediary organizations that distribute the funding to students. These organizations would be responsible for their own audits and fraud prevention (think fox guarding the henhouse). 

Here’s some of what we still don’t know:

• Will voucher dollars be given directly to families to spend or will a private intermediary organization handle every individual payment?
• What safeguards will be in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse?
• What sensitive financial information will families be required to provide to qualify for funding? How will that information be protected?
• How much would Pennsylvania taxpayers need to spend to set up and administer the program?

If you want to learn more, click HERE to watch a webinar we held last week. 

When Governor Tina Kotek opted Oregon out of the program, she stated, “At this point, I simply cannot trust that any education policy coming from Trump’s White House is in the best interest of Oregon’s kids and our public education system.”

The same can be said for Pennsylvania kids and our public education system.  

Please tell Governor Shapiro to opt Pennsylvania out of Trump’s school voucher program. Sign the petition and share it with your friends and networks. 

We’ve created a new webpage bringing all of this information together, including our full report and an opportunity to tell Governor Shapiro to reject Trump’s school voucher program.

Click HERE to sign the petition today. The decision that Governor Shapiro makes  will have enormous, long-lasting ramifications for educational resource allocation and equity in the commonwealth. 

Pennsylvanians who care about public schools and the students they educate need to speak up now to tell him to reject this program.