{"id":935382,"date":"2026-07-15T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/935382\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T00:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:00:24","slug":"shapiro-touts-state-budget-education-funding-during-visit-to-south-philly-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/935382\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro touts state budget, education funding during visit to South Philly school"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days after signing Pennsylvania\u2019s $50.85 billion budget,<\/a> Gov. Josh Shapiro came to a South Philadelphia elementary school Tuesday to celebrate increased funding for public education.<\/p>\n

From the stage inside Vare-Washington\u2019s auditorium, the governor addressed students in the school\u2019s free Summer Achievers<\/a> program, which combines academics and fun activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all here,\u201d Shapiro said, \u201cbecause you matter and because you can grow up to be anything you want to be. And we believe in you. And we\u2019re here to help and support you along that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro and state lawmakers reached a budget agreement over the weekend that includes $157.3 million in additional funding for the School District of Philadelphia<\/a>. The state\u2019s annual contribution to the district has increased 45% \u2014 or $692 million \u2014 since Shapiro took office in 2023, according to his administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people say, \u2018Does extra money make a difference?\u2019\u201d Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said. \u201cYes, when it\u2019s invested right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the increase is coming in the form of so-called \u201cadequacy\u201d dollars, which are based on a formula developed after a 2023 court ruling<\/a> deemed Pennsylvania\u2019s school funding system unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s spending plan allocates an additional $565 million in adequacy and tax equity funding across the state, with smaller increases in basic education ($58 million) and special education ($55 million) funding.<\/p>\n

Public education advocates who were involved in the landmark court decision say Harrisburg may not be moving fast enough to close the gap between richer and poorer districts. Some school systems are being forced to use the adequacy money just to keep up with rising costs, instead of offering more, according to the Public Interest Law Center and Education Law Center-PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe warning signs are clear,\u201d Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at PILC, said in a statement. \u201cTo provide children the education the constitution demands, we need more teachers and more programs. Despite that, many underfunded schools stayed level this year, while others made cuts. Nothing can make plainer that we need to accelerate the pace of the Commonwealth\u2019s plan for compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro, a Democrat, noted that he is in the difficult position of dealing with a divided government. The GOP holds a majority of the seats in the Pennsylvania Senate, while his party controls the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we\u2019ve got a lot more work to do, but we met the challenge. We\u2019re investing in our schools,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have all been clear that we would not get up from the table in Harrisburg until we fully funded public education, and we\u2019ve done that four straight years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro and the elected leaders who joined him at Vare-Washington also highlighted a $10 million increase to a fund used to provide stipends to student teachers.<\/p>\n

In addition, the budget provides dollars to continue a statewide free breakfast initiative and requires schools to institute at least 30 minutes of recess daily for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE: Philadelphia summer meals program aims to serve 1 million free meals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tJosh Shapiro,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Pennsylvania budget,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Pennsylvania education,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t School District of Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia schools,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t South Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Tony Watlington,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Education funding\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two days after signing Pennsylvania\u2019s $50.85 billion budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro came to a South Philadelphia elementary school…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":935383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,4934,10577,1448,2830,84126,18729,1311,138829,10774,11590,10776,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-935382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-education-funding","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-budget","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-schools","tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","tag-south-philadelphia","tag-tony-watlington","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116921055711897488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}