State House Republicans are trying to give Gov. Josh Shapiro another chance to make good on a campaign promise and fund Lifeline Scholarships — the same scholarships he killed with a line-item veto in 2023.
“Instead of standing strong for students, the governor bent to pressure from teachers’ unions and House Democrats to line-item veto that $100 million for the scholarships,” Bucks County Rep. Craig Staats (R) said at the time. “Instead of bridging that gap and bringing all sides to the table, Gov. Shapiro took the easy way out and chose to leave students behind.”
Now, Reps. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) and Clint Owlett (R-Tioga) have reintroduced the Lifeline Scholarship proposal that would help students leave failing schools.
House Bill 1489 would establish the Lifeline Scholarship to provide K-12 students and qualified families with the resources they need to pursue high-quality educational alternatives. Families who either have a household income below 350 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or who reside in the attendance areas of the state’s lowest-performing schools would be eligible.
Those families would receive scholarships to cover qualified educational expenses, including school tuition, required textbooks and curriculum materials; specialized services for students with special needs; and tutoring or other supplemental education-related resources to help scholarship recipients achieve grade-level expectations.
Under the bill, the initial amount of the scholarships would range from $2,500 for students in half-day kindergarten to $5,000 for students in full-day kindergarten through grade eight. Scholarships would increase to $10,000 for students in grades nine through 12. Scholarships for students with special needs, regardless of grade level, would be $15,000.
“Harrisburg has for too long failed these families by being complacent; it is not dissimilar to how schools have failed their children time and again,” White said. “We need to come together and do the hard work necessary to ensure all students have access to high-quality education regardless of where they live in Pennsylvania.”
The lawmakers noted recent statewide test scores show how important it is to offer more education options for students. According to the 2024 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), 72 percent of eighth-grade students in public schools are not proficient in math, and 48 percent are not proficient in language arts.
In the bottom 15 percent of public schools, only 7 percent of high school students and 10 percent of elementary students are proficient in math. In 18 of these schools, not a single student is proficient in either reading or math.
The House bill was referred to the Education Committee. A similar bill, SB 10, passed the Senate Education Committee on May 6. The Lifeline Scholarship program would be run through the Pennsylvania Treasury, and the bill provides initial funding of $350 million.
“Thousands of kids in Pennsylvania have a better shot at quality education thanks to Rep. Martina White and Rep. Clint Owlett for their recent introduction of Lifeline Scholarships,” said Kevin Kane, director of legislative strategy for the Commonwealth Foundation. “Building on the Senate’s recent bipartisan momentum advancing a bill to save kids from failing schools, Republican legislators in both chambers continue to champion educational opportunity for all students in Pennsylvania.”
Kane also called the current academic performance of Pennsylvania schools “an education crisis.”
“Over 69 percent of our students cannot read or do math at grade level. Over 200,000 students are stuck in the worst-performing schools in our state. Our kids need the immediate relief these scholarships offer to find a school that best fits their needs.”
White and Owlett said the bill does not take money away from basic education funding. Some 71 percent of Pennsylvanians support scholarships for low-income students to attend schools that are a better fit for their needs.
Owlett and White also noted that Shapiro had promised support for education choice when he ran for governor, but used a line-item veto to remove it from the 2023-24 budget.
“For the past two years, Shapiro and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford blocked proposals to save kids from failing, violent schools,” Kane said. “Shapiro promised to give kids in our worst-performing schools a lifeline during his 2022 campaign for governor.
“It’s about time he followed through on his word. Our students cannot afford to wait any longer.”
