In Pennsylvania, 30,000 children currently attend private and parochial schools on state-funded scholarships. Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro's proposed 2027 budget would slash $500 million from the state's school choice programs — money that keeps those kids in better schools where they're actually learning.
The Democratic Party's war on school choice is escalating just as the evidence for it becomes undeniable. Twenty-three states now run some form of school choice program. Roughly 1.5 million American children are enrolled. Florida alone has 1.4 million kids in voucher and charter programs. Arizona's universal voucher program serves more than 100,000 students at roughly $7,000 per pupil — a fraction of what most public school districts spend per head.
The results aren't ambiguous. Florida's public charter schools outperform traditional public schools on 55 of 77 academic metrics tracked by the state. The charter sector earned an overall grade of "A." These aren't boutique academies for the wealthy. These are schools where kids from modest backgrounds are, as Moore put it, "challenged, disciplined and taught to learn that failure is not an option."
So naturally, Democrats want to shut it down.
Shapiro isn't alone. Rhode Island's Democratic Governor Dan McKee has pushed back against choice expansion in his state. The teachers' unions — led nationally by the National Education Association — have made killing voucher programs a top legislative priority. The Florida Education Association has challenged the state's programs on constitutional grounds, arguing that the Florida Constitution requires a "uniform" system of free public schools. Uniform. Not better. Not effective. Uniform.
The union argument boils down to this: public schools deserve the money regardless of outcomes, and parents don't get to vote with their feet. Former NEA leader John Lloyd has been explicit about the union position — school funding belongs to the system, not to the student.
But here's what that position requires you to ignore. In Florida, more than 70,000 families are on waiting lists for scholarships that would let their children attend a school of their choice. Those aren't rich families gaming the system. Those are parents who looked at their assigned school, looked at the alternative, and chose the alternative. The unions want to make sure that choice disappears.
The pattern is consistent across every state where choice programs exist. Parents want in. Results improve. Unions lobby to kill the funding. Democratic governors comply. The children who lose their scholarships go back to the schools their parents were trying to leave.
Pennsylvania's $500 million cut would be the largest single rollback of school choice funding in the country. It lands in a state where urban public schools have struggled for decades, where Philadelphia parents have fought for charter options, and where the political class has reliably sided with the system over the student.
Twenty-three states figured out that when you let parents choose, kids do better. The unions figured out that when parents choose, the money moves. One of those concerns is about children. The other is about market share.