Jack Fowler writes for National Review Online about Pennsylvania Democrats’ opposition to education options their constituents support.
Americans are strongly in favor of charter schools. [The survey] shows that 53 percent of all adults support them, with only 14 percent opposing, while favorability rises noticeably among school parents: 72 percent support charter schools, while only 11 percent oppose.
Those figures inch upward in Pennsylvania, a persistent hotspot for legislative and political battles on education reform these past few years, marked by the betrayal of alleged “moderate” Democrat Josh Shapiro, who first won election as governor in 2022 campaigning as an ed-reform supporter, but who since has caved to the powerful teachers’ union, which calls shots in the legislature’s Democrat caucus.
More data: Commonwealth residents and school parents think alike when it comes to charter schools: 74 percent support them. …
… That dramatic, popular support for choice and reform holds no sway with the Democratic caucus in the Pennsylvania House, where Majority Leader Matt Bradford — who has taken more than $200,000 in teachers’ union political support while simultaneously working for a law firm whose clients include public school districts — rules. Efforts to block, and even roll back, reform efforts and scholarship funding are a priority, and system-protecting is doctrine. …
… The Pennsylvania House Democrats war-waging against education reform is complemented by Governor Shapiro, whose proposed FY 2026-27 budget seeks to reduce funding available through education tax credits for scholarship organizations, while taking on another reform effort by recommending cuts to public cyber-schools. …
… In the swing state of Pennsylvania, the locus of popular support for education reform and of significant demand for more of it (and, sadly, of plentiful failing schools that manifest it), Democrats, even those who posture as moderates and reformers — yes you, especially you, Governor Shapiro — remain hell-bent.
America needs to know this about them. And about him.
