Three years ago, the school choice debate shut down Harrisburg. Now Democrats are ready to engage.

HARRISBURG — Three years after a bitter budget standoff over allowing state funding to be used for private school tuition, top Democrats in Harrisburg are ready to engage on school choice.

Legislative action and comments from a top House Democrat this week expressing openness to a federal school-choice program marked a notable change from 2023, when a fight over school vouchers put Democratic lawmakers at odds with both Republicans and Gov. Josh Shapiro, a member of their own party.

The shift comes as Shapiro, who has embraced school choice and is a likely 2028 presidential contender, faces a deadline to opt in to President Donald Trump’s new federal tax credit program.

House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said this week that some of the uses of Trump’s tax credits, which are opposed by the country’s largest teachers unions, are “intriguing.” And he noted he is proud of some money the state now pours into one of the tax credits to fund private-school scholarships for low-income families in low-achieving districts. Those comments from Bradford, a top leader in Harrisburg, suggested a public softening on an issue that was previously a non-starter for his party — and signaled the school-choice debate may once again factor into state budget negotiations.

“For our members of our caucus who want to see alternatives for the poorest kids in the poorest schools, we’re being responsive to the needs of those constituents,” he said in an interview, referencing growing support for school choice among some House Democrats, particularly those from Philadelphia.

The school-choice movement, a largely Republican-backed effort to allow public dollars to go to private schools, faces strong opposition from education advocates who say such programs can take money from public schools.

And that debate is sure to continue. Bradford said more oversight — and an overall reform of the current tax credits — is needed to make sure the state tax dollars are actually reaching poor students.

Earlier this week, House Democrats fast-tracked an overhaul to the state’s current $680 million school-choice tax-credit programs to require additional reporting from private schools in order to secure funding. The legislation is likely to face opposition in the GOP-led Senate, where Republicans on Thursday advanced a $25 million increase to the programs ahead of a June 30 deadline to pass a state budget.

Senate Republicans called the tax credits a “priority for empowering parents,” while the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said the House bill would be “devastating” to local Catholic schools and lead to fewer scholarships for students.

A spokesperson for Shapiro said his office is reviewing the House bill, and declined to comment on whether his position on school choice has changed. Shapiro, who has sent his own children to private school in Montgomery County, has previously said he supports school choice, including school vouchers.

Shapiro has until the end of the year to decide whether to opt in to the federal program. But the signal of openness from Bradford, who is close with the governor, offers potential insight into his path forward.

That program, enacted last year under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would offer federal tax credits to donors for giving to organizations that grant private school scholarships. Many GOP-led states have already signed on, while some Democratic governors have declined to participate.

Shapiro will also likely face questions about school choice on the campaign trail.

He is running for reelection in November against Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity. Garrity’s platform focuses, in part, on expanding school-choice options in Pennsylvania and she has the support of Commonwealth Partners, a political action committee largely funded by Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeff Yass, which has poured money into supporting school choice.

The issue will also likely surface a national stage if Shapiro enters the 2028 Democratic presidential primary race. His support for vouchers drew criticism from fellow Democrats in 2024, when he was a potential vice presidential nominee.

Pennsylvania does not have a direct school voucher program. Instead, the state sets aside $680 million each year for tax credits that allow businesses and individuals to write off charitable giving that supports private school scholarships.

House Democratic support for those credits has quietly grown in recent years. In a June 2025 letter recently obtained by The Inquirer, 10 House Democrats, including five from Philadelphia and the head of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, asked their leadership to expand a portion of the tax credits for students in the lowest-achieving school districts — revealing more Democratic support for the programs than was previously known.

Public education advocates who oppose voucher programs say the state is funneling money to private schools with little accountability.

“It’s just a pot of money that a bunch of people get, and nobody really knows where it goes or what happens to it,” said Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters PA.

New requirements approved by the state legislature last year are set to take effect in November and will require scholarship organizations to report the dollar amount of each award, the recipient’s district of residence, and where they attend private school.

The bill advanced by the House in a 105-97 vote this week would also require organizations to report each scholarship recipient’s income level — reducing the current limit to $144,000 for a family of four — and the amount of remaining tuition charged to a student. Advocates, including Spicka, called that information key to gauging whether scholarships are going to families who otherwise could afford private school.

Bradford said he’s proud of the $110 million earmarked in existing state tax credits to provide additional money to kids attending schools where a majority of students are getting scholarships. House Democrats say their newest proposal would steer more money toward those students.

But the proposed legislation — which would also reduce the tax credit donors could claim for some contributions, and require scholarship organizations to set 2% of funding aside for state oversight of the programs — drew swift backlash from private school advocates.

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez is “deeply concerned that this legislation would have a devastating impact,” said spokesperson Ken Gavin. “The clear intent is to lead to the dilution or elimination of the programs, which are vital.”

Schools affiliated with the Philadelphia archdiocese educate nearly 44,000 students across 117 schools in the region, according to its website.

Bradford, who is Catholic, said the Archdiocese’s response “missed the mark,” arguing that this legislative effort is trying to achieve a similar goal of serving students from poor families who attend the roughest schools.

“I’m proud of my own Catholic faith. I love when my Catholic Church stands for those communities,” Bradford added. “No one should ever fear transparency, especially when you’re talking about three-quarters of a billion dollars of state tax dollars.”

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans on Thursday amended another House bill to increase the state’s current tax credit programs to $705 million.

President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), a staunch supporter of school vouchers, said in a statement that Bradford‘s attention to school choice is disingenuous, criticizing the House Democrats’ bill as “overly burdensome auditing requirements disguised as ‘transparency.’”

The 2023 budget breakdown, where Shapiro ultimately vetoed the school voucher program he‘d helped draft with Senate Republicans because it couldn’t pass the Democratic-controlled House, continues to tarnish his relationships with top GOP leaders, including Ward. He and Ward have hardly spoken since.

“While Senate Republicans have consistently advanced legislation to provide scholarships to disadvantaged students, the track record for Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Democrats has been nothing more than a case of whiplash as their words and actions rarely align,” Ward said. “To me, it seems like the support for school choice by the House Democrat Leadership is more of a façade as they continue to cater to political special interests.”

Ward has also called for changes to Pennsylvania’s new public school funding system, which includes an adequacy formula that directs more money to the state’s poorest school districts, including Philadelphia.

Bradford, in response, said he is open to conversation about accountability and transparency, but that debate needs to include private schools benefiting from taxpayer dollars.

“We shouldn’t carve out any portion of our K-to-12 education,” Bradford added. “That conversation needs to be uniform.”

Shapiro has previously said he would wait for more details before making a decision on whether to participate in the new federal tax credit program. The U.S. Department of the Treasury earlier this month released additional details, including that it will allow individuals to receive up to $1,700 in credits for making donations to private school scholarships that can cover tuition, tutoring, and more. A family of four making $99,000 annually, or 300% of the federal poverty level, would be eligible to receive the scholarship.

School-choice advocates say Pennsylvania taxpayers will be able to claim the credit regardless of whether Shapiro opts in. But in order for Pennsylvania schools and students to benefit, the governor needs to join.

Shapiro’s press secretary Rosie Lapowsky said the governor appreciates the guidance, but continues to await information on “how this will affect use of our existing tax credits, how states will be expected to administer the program, and how eligibility will be determined.”

Twenty-eight states have opted in to the program, most of which are led by Republicans. And Democrats are facing pressure to stay out of the program.

In a letter sent to Democratic governors this week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle called the program “a Trojan horse carrying near-universal K-12 private school vouchers into every state that participates.”

So far, Democratic governors elsewhere have taken differing approaches to the program. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said her state will participate but is waiting for final guidance before officially signing on. Other governors like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek have announced that their states will not participate. Democratic governors in Arizona and Wisconsin have vetoed legislative efforts to force their states to opt in, while governors’ similar vetoes in North Carolina and Kentucky were overridden by legislators.

Bradford said it’s “an abomination” that funding for Trump’s program came from Republicans making other cuts to the federal budget, and emphasized that state Democrats remain committed to increasing public education funding.

“Here in Pennsylvania,” he said, “we are a humble 102 [Democrats] in the Pennsylvania House and we are nimble and pragmatic.”