Feb 07 An Overview of Gov. Shapiro’s 2025-26 Budget Proposal

Feb 07h in Bold Voices by

(February 7, 2025)

On February 4, Governor Shapiro released his third proposed budget, which outlines his Administration’s priorities for the FY 2025-2026 fiscal year. It is important to note that the release of the Governor’s budget kicks off the budget process and his proposal is simply that, proposed allocations that outline funding levels that align with the Governor’s priorities. The General Assembly can choose to use this budget as a guide, or to disregard it as they develop specific allocations for programs and services before the June 30 budget deadline.

There were many bright spots in this year’s budget proposal for children and families, including proposed increases in K-12 classroom funding, out-of-school time programming, child care, and PreK. While there is still work to be done to meet the needs of children and families across the Commonwealth, this budget proposal highlights many crucial investments in vital programs and services.

BOOST

A very bright spot that was included in this year’s proposal is a significant increase in funding to the Building Opportunities through Out-of-School Time (BOOST) program. If enacted by the General Assembly, this increase would double the state investment in out-of-school time programming. As Allies for Children recently reported, $1.8 million in BOOST funding was recently allocated to programs in Allegheny County.

K-12

Other highlights include a $567 million increase for the Ready to Learn block grant – the same increase that was adopted last year as part of the adequacy supplement to assist our most struggling school districts, as well as a $75 million increase to Basic Education Funding.

CTE/Mental Health

The Governor proposed a small increase to career and technical education ($5.5 million) and level funding for the School Security and Mental Health grants. These are both areas where we hope that the General Assembly will go above and beyond the Governor’s proposal to provide increased funding to these crucial programs. CTE provides direct instruction to prepare students to enter the workforce, and the School Security and Mental Health grants are a small pot of money for each district to help offset the costs associated with making schools safer and addressing the mental health challenges of students. Allies for Children plans to dive deeper into these funding streams and how they are utilized in schools over the next few months.

School Breakfast

Allies for Children is thrilled to see the Governor’s continued commitment to school breakfast, which is necessary to ensure that every Pennsylvania student starts their day with full bellies and ready to learn. The Governor’s proposal commits to another year of serving 1.7 million students across PA with an increase of $10 million to sustain services. Allies for Children and our partners will continue to advocate with the legislature to add universal school lunch as they negotiate a final budget deal in June and beyond.

Cyber Charter Schools

Another crucial policy item which would have a direct impact on school districts’ budgets if enacted is a proposed change to cyber charter school tuition. Currently, a school district pays their average cost per student to send a student to a charter school, causing districts to pay varying amounts to the same charter school. This tuition rate applies to both a brick and mortar charter school and a cyber charter school. The Governor’s proposal would establish a statewide base tuition rate for cyber charter schools beginning at $8000/child to better reflect the actual cost of instruction within that charter school.

PA WIC

Consistent with last year’s budget, federal funding in the WIC budget in the Department of Health is $277.9 million. Allies for Children is advocating along with national partners to ensure that WIC is adequately funded to serve projected caseloads.

Medicaid and CHIP

Governor Shapiro proposed a $6.7 million, or 6%, decrease for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), to account for 24-25 CHIP arrearages which are not needed in 25-26.

The proposed budget includes an increase of $659 million to fund PA Medicaid. This additional funding helps support enrollment and rate increases. Allies for Children and our partners will continue to monitor funding for continuous health care coverage for kids from birth to age 6, along with implementation of other Medicaid waivers to ensure all eligible families receive services they qualify for.

Early Intervention (EI)

The Department of Human Services (DHS) budget includes a $16.2 million increase for Early Intervention Part C (Infant/Toddler) — $10 million will be used for a much needed increase in provider rates. The coalition at Thriving PA supports the proposed increase while noting that significantly more dollars are needed to provide adequate services for PA’s infants and toddlers.

Shapiro’s proposed Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) budget also includes an increase of $14.5 million to sustain services for Early Intervention Part B (ages three to five).

 

Specific proposed allocations related to children and families include:

  • Career and Technical Education – $5.5 million increase ($150 million)
  • Basic Education Funding – $75 million increase ($8.23 billion)
  • Ready to Learn Block Grants – $526 million increase ($1.34 billion)
  • Special Education – $40 million increase ($1.5 billion)
  • PA Pre-K Counts – $17 million increase ($334 million)
  • Head Start Supplemental – Level funding ($91 million)
  • Early Intervention (Infant/Toddler): $16.2 million increase ($201.4 million)
  • Early Intervention (ages 3-5): $14.5 million increase ($430 million)
  • Childcare – $57.7 million increase ($55 million in the proposed new Child Care Recruitment and Retention line item as well $1.6 million in Child Care Services and $1.1 million in Child Care Assistance line items) ($479 million)
  • Community-Based Family Centers – Level funding ($35 million)
  • Nurse Family Partnership – $67,000 or 0.5% decrease which accounts for changes to the federal match rate ($14 million)
  • School Safety/Mental Health – Level funding ($100 million)
  • Child Welfare – Level funding ($1.49 billion)

Resources:
Democrat Response
Republican Response
Spotlight PA