Pennsylvania Democrats have never been more brazen in their disregard for educational choice. House Democrats recently advanced legislation that would deny choice and opportunity to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania kids, declaring their intention to gut educational choice for families.
House Bill (HB) 2632 represents an attack on low- and middle-class students attending private school. Originally, Democrats proposed cutting $102 million in tax-credit scholarships, robbing 30,000 kids and their families of their ability to afford a better education. For perspective, schools and scholarship organizations awarded more than 101,000 tax-credit scholarships last year, so this is a substantial cut.
Lawmakers eventually restored these proposed cuts, but the updated bill still undermines educational options for tens of thousands of students. HB 2632 cuts tax credit levels, eliminates supplemental scholarships, ties student eligibility to unrelated policies, and attempts to intimidate donors, schools and parents with onerous taxes and regulations.
House Democrats have also advanced HB 2634, which escalates their longstanding war against charter schools. For two straight years, these lawmakers have cut funding to cyber charters, slashing about $190 million in 2024 and $100 million in 2025. Now, they have set their sights on their brick-and-mortar counterparts. This is nothing short of an affront to the nearly 169,000 kids who attend Pennsylvania charter schools.
For years, Democrat lawmakers have obscured their true intentions. While claiming to “champion” increased funding for public education, these lawmakers will also refer to cuts to charter schools – which are public schools – as “savings.” They will claim that their efforts to rein in tax-credit scholarships enhance “accountability.” But these euphemisms only serve as smoke and mirrors to mask their contempt for school choice.
Now, House Democrats are saying the quiet parts out loud. One House Democrat declared on the record that she wants tax-credit scholarships to “go away … and go away for good.” Snatching scholarships away from needy kids is about as shameless as it gets.
But this onslaught of legislation didn’t come out of nowhere. It has been a well-coordinated and calculated attack in the works for months.
Gov. Josh Shapiro laid the groundwork for this assault. His 2026-27 spending plan proposed cutting funding for tuition scholarships and shifting to public school programs. His budget also proposed “restructuring” the charter schools funding model. Sensing permission from the top, House Democrats simply followed orders, took the governor’s proposals, and ran with them in the chamber.
This is just part and parcel of Shapiro’s long-term betrayal. As a candidate, he campaigned to advance Lifeline Scholarships to help Pennsylvania kids escape underperforming schools. But in 2023, when he had the opportunity to sign the legislation into law, he vetoed it. The governor continues to leave a lengthy trail of broken promises behind him in his pursuit of higher office.
But Shapiro and House Democrats are alone in this sentiment. Polling demonstrates time after time that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support school choice. About eight out of ten Pennsylvanians support expanding tax-credit scholarships while only 38 percent support cutting funds for cyber charters. Put simply, Pennsylvania Democrats are ignoring their constituents in favor of the teacher unions that fund their campaigns.
Moreover, the popularity of school choice is evident from the number of students seeking educational alternatives. Last year, Pennsylvania turned away nearly 70,000 scholarship applicants due to program caps that have unnecessarily limited scholarship availability. And demand exceeds supply for charter schools as well, with the number of applicants outnumbering the available seats offered by the schools.
The demand for school choice is significant.
Thankfully, lawmakers have legislative options that could meet this need. Before House Democrats went on their offensive, state Rep. Martina White presented her Education Omnibus bill, which would add $200 million in tax-credit scholarships, create a new Displaced Student Scholarship Program, establish the Pennsylvania Learning Investment Tax Credit, and increase the available tax credit to donors.
White’s bill also opts Pennsylvania into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit. The federal tax credit could bring in between $32 million and $967 million to Pennsylvania, according to Education Reform Now. So far, 31 states, including New York and Colorado (states not well known for their school choice advocacy), have expressed their intent to opt in.
Pennsylvania education now stands at a crossroads. Lawmakers can either abandon the hundreds of thousands of kids seeking educational alternatives, or they can continue to support Pennsylvania’s long-term efforts to advance educational choice-the very movement the commonwealth pioneered decades ago.
The choice, ironically, has never been clearer.
