In the upcoming Pennsylvania budget, we have a chance to achieve an historic increase in funding for our Pennsylvania public schools. A Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision last year admitted what we all already knew to be true: our public schools are severely underfunded, and the way they are funded is unconstitutional.

We’re calling for the Pennsylvania Budget to include the Governor’s $1.1B in funding allocation for public schools. We are also calling for a multi-year plan to ensure that the Commonwealth Court’s ruling is implemented and closes the over $5 billion dollars gap between wealthy and unfunded schools in Pennsylvania.

At the same time, we’re calling for a rejection of school voucher expansion in any form. Vouchers fundamentally threaten our public education system. Last year, Democrats held strong and negotiated a budget without a state-funded private school voucher program. We’re fighting to make sure the state House once again rejects vouchers. Vouchers are primarily being pushed by Republican billionaires like Jeffrey Yass, who seek to profit from the education system at our expense.

Similar voucher programs in other states have failed miserably. And vouchers would just make the severe underfunding of Pennsylvania public schools even worse. They’ll strip revenue from our public schools and send them to for-profit private schools and religious schools. These schools can, and do, discriminate against our young people. There’s a real future where our public schools are entirely decimated if this school voucher policy is implemented in this year’s budget.

While Democrats held the line against school privatization last year, we know that the pressures are larger and louder this year to pass a budget that includes vouchers, especially from rightwing billionaires like Jeffrey Yass who are pushing their privatization agenda. The budget will likely be passed within the next 6 weeks, and we need to act now to ensure that vouchers are not part of Pennsylvania’s future.

As their constituent, YOU are the most powerful person to convince your representatives to oppose school vouchers.

Please write to your Democratic State Senator and State Representative tell them to OPPOSE Vouchers.