More than 50 faith leaders sent an open letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday, urging him to support school choice and educational freedom.
The nonprofit Black Pastors Coalition for Education called on Shapiro to “make education a bipartisan issue, boldly reject the politics that impede progress, and comprehensively fund and ensure educational freedom and opportunity.”
The open letter came shortly after Jay-Z voiced his support for Pennsylvania’s school voucher program and House Democrats passed a bill that would overhaul the student funding formula in a major blow to charter schools.
In his first year as governor, Shapiro initially supported school choice, but Republicans accused him of violating a campaign promise and he backed down, delaying the passage of the budget by several months.
“The time has come for Pennsylvania to lead the nation in educational opportunity,” argued the United Black Pastors for Education.
“We must work intentionally, collaboratively, strategically and compassionately for our children and our state.”
The group called on Governor Shapiro to “provide adequate and proper funding for public schools,” create a lifeline scholarship program to allow students from the state’s lowest performing schools to attend other schools, and oppose cutting funding to online charter schools, which serve a higher proportion of low-income and non-white students than traditional schools.
“We believe that every child in Pennsylvania has the right to educational choices tailored to their individual needs and interests,” BPUE wrote.
“We are empowering the voices of parents, guardians, community and faith leaders to tell lawmakers that every Pennsylvania child deserves access to a quality education, regardless of their zip code, background or situation.”
The Rev. Joshua Robertson, senior pastor of The Rock Church in Harrisburg and founder of BPUE, said there is bipartisan support for adequately funding public schools, but consensus on maintaining funding for the Lifeline Scholarship Program and cyber charter schools has been difficult to come by.
“I’ve never encountered a parent who was opposed when I explained the Lifeline Scholarship or explained the alternatives,” he says.
“If increasing educational choice is going to hurt public schools, then I think we should be having a larger conversation about our broken system.”
He used himself as an example of someone who attended public school but graduated with only a second-grade reading ability.
Although he was successful in football, he couldn’t keep up academically until a North Carolina bishop mentored him and put him on the path to earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“My life was changed because someone sacrificed their entire life to give me an opportunity,” Robertson said.
“It’s easy to say more funding means success, but over 30 years of history in Pennsylvania has shown that more funding does not necessarily translate to better education.”
Students and parents want more opportunities and choices, he argued.
“I want lawmakers to put politics aside and do what’s right for kids,” Robertson said.
“We trust and pray for Governor Shapiro to lead the Senate and Assembly in comprehensively funding educational choice and choice in Pennsylvania. We want him to lead the way and not let politics get in the way of people.”
