Teach Plus PA Applauds State Budget That Boosts Adequacy Funding, Literacy, and the Educator Workforce
Harrisburg, PA, July 12, 2026—Teach Plus Pennsylvania today issued the following statement in response to the state budget passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Shapiro:
Teach Plus PA applauds the final state budget passed today, which includes investments and policy changes aligned with many of the organization’s education priorities: adequacy funding, student teacher stipends, early literacy, and child care recruitment and retention.
“If we want every kid in Pennsylvania to get a great education and a chance to pursue their dreams, we know what works: adequate resources regardless of zip code, a great teacher in front of every classroom, and strong instruction in foundational skills like reading,” said Laura Boyce, Teach Plus PA Executive Director. “This year’s state budget bets big on the basics, with a third installment of adequacy funding, another major investment in our educator workforce, and continued funding for early literacy.”
The final budget includes a third installment of $565 million in adequacy funding for underfunded schools. The state’s $4.8 billion adequacy gap is now one-third of the way to being closed, and the legislature has signaled a commitment to treating adequacy funding as a non-negotiable part of state budgets until constitutional compliance is reached. Teach Plus PA Policy Fellows, along with partners in the PA Schools Work coalition, have been key advocates for this funding since the Commonwealth Court found Pennsylvania’s funding system unconstitutional.
“As we prepare for the final week of an exciting World Cup played in our own backyard, we applaud our legislature for achieving its own hat trick: three straight years of adequacy funding,” said Heather Romberger, a middle school teacher in the Allentown School District and a Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellow. “As we found in our report, Closing the Gap: Real-World Returns on Pennsylvania’s Adequacy Funding, our students in Pennsylvania across district and charter schools are benefiting from the first two installments of funding, and this third installment will allow schools to continue making wise investments to advance student opportunity.”
The state budget also includes $40 million to continue to fund the popular and oversubscribed student teacher stipend program. This represents a $10 million increase over last year’s appropriation and $5 million more than the governor proposed. Teach Plus PA Policy Fellows worked with partners in the PA Needs Teachers coalition to pass the program in 2023 and increase funding by $10 million every year with bipartisan support.
“No future educator should have to choose between pursuing their passion and being able to pay for basic needs like housing, tuition, and gas,” said Dr. Shannon Dietz, a high school math and education teacher from Ephrata Area School District and a Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Senior Fellow. “I see firsthand how much the aspiring educators in my high school education class already stress about the reality of financially supporting themselves in college. Continued funding of the student teacher stipends helps to alleviate part of the financial burden as well as some of the mental toll these students will face during their teacher training. We applaud the legislature for its commitment to investing in teachers, and we will continue to push for full funding of the program so that every eligible student teacher can benefit.”
For the second year, the state budget also includes $10 million to fund early literacy. While significantly more funding will be required to fully implement Act 47, the comprehensive literacy reforms passed with the support of Teach Plus PA and the PA Literacy Coalition last year, this continued investment will support more school districts in investing in teacher training, curriculum, and universal screeners aligned with the science of reading.
The state budget also includes a $5 million increase in funding for child care recruitment and retention bonuses, a key priority of Teach Plus PA’s early childhood educators.
We look forward to continuing to partner with Governor Shapiro and legislative leaders to make Pennsylvania the fastest-improving state in early literacy by continuing to make targeted investments in adequacy funding, the educator workforce, and early literacy reforms in upcoming budgets.
About Teach Plus
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. In pursuing our mission, Teach Plus is guided by our Student Opportunity Mandate: To act boldly and create the conditions where every student can imagine their future—and experience an education that delivers the opportunity to realize it. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning for students. www.teachplus.org/pa
