Josh Shapiro has been a swell governor of Pennsylvania, certainly far superior to some of the far right wingnuts that we've had running in this state. But word is out today that he's on the Very Short List for the Kamala Harris VP, and all I can say is, I sure hope they don't pick him.
Shapiro has a good ear for many things, and as governor has gotten stuff done in a state where we often find a Democratic governor and a GOP-dominated legislature looked in paralytic embrace. He fixed a bridge--quickly. Even the right-tilted Washington Examiner said he "met the moment" after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
But when it comes to school vouchers, he is not a public school supporters dream.
He hasn't been shy about it. He ran on a platform that included explicit support for school vouchers, explicit in favoring the super-vouchers that Pennsylvania's GOP has been pushing for years.
Josh favors adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania.
His education transition team included several choicers, including Amy Sichel, the superintendent who drew flak for selling naming rights for a high school to Donald Trump buddy Stephen Schwarzman, and Joel Greenberg, co-founding partner of Susquehanna International Group with Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania's most well-heeled deep pocketed activist for school vouchers.
School privatizers worked out a bill that they thought would provide Shapiro sufficient political cover, meeting his requirement that it wouldn't take money from public schools (spoiler alert: it totally would), then were Very Upset when Shapiro decided not to sign off on that voucherpalooza.
However, Shapiro immediately signaled that his voucher love was still strong and that he still wants to find a way to make it happen. In the meantime, he threw choice a bone by giving supporters a chance to "improve" the state charter board. And his crew went ahead and approved a new cyber-charter when there was every reason in the world to say no.
Look, it's not as if he's been sneaky or underhanded about his voucher love, but it's also not as if he's shown openness to consider evidence that his affection might be misplaced. Meanwhile, other governors like Governors Roy Cooper (North Carolina), Andy Beshear (Kentucky), Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan), and Tim Walz (Minnesota) have stood up for public education in their states (yes, they're not all available, but they are proof that such defenders exist).
The state Dems were willing to throw public education under the bus, and I don't expect much better from the national party. But it would be nice. It would be nice to have the nation's top spots occupied by solid supporters of public education who oppose privatization, who did not calculate that education is one place where they can just go ahead and adopt a slightly watered down version of right-wing policy, who did not embrace the kind of neo-liberal baloney that we've suffered under in previous administrations.
The push to privatize education has never pushed harder, and public education has never been more in need of a champion at the highest level. Josh Shapiro is not that champion.
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