Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an last month to create a AI governing board for Pennsylvania that will guide the commonwealth’s use of generative artificial intelligence, including developing training programs for state employees.

“We don’t want to let AI happen to us,” Shapiro said. “We want to be part of helping develop AI for the betterment of our citizens.”

The Sept. 20 order establishes a set of “core values” including privacy, safety, fairness, accuracy, and employee empowerment. It will be made up of “senior administration officials and experts in the field,” and begin meeting next week, the governor said.

Shapiro signed the order at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which will work with the AI governing board to guide the state’s use of the technology.

“Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming nearly every sector of our economy,” CMU President Farnam Jahanian said at the event. “I’m grateful to have a leader in Harrisburg that recognizes the potential and the urgency of this moment.”

Shapiro and other state officials at the announcement stressed that the state’s use of AI won’t replace human workers.

“If we take the course that other states and countries have taken to completely ban AI for government purposes. we’re going to seriously lose out on the opportunity presented to us to improve government services for Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said. “At the same time, know that AI will never replace the ingenuity, the creativity, and the lived experience of our outstanding workforce in the commonwealth. A tool, no matter how sophisticated, accomplishes nothing without a hand to wield it.”

As part of the executive order, the Shapiro administration will create a two-year fellowship program for post-bachelor, masters’ and doctoral candidates who will work on AI issues with state agencies.

Shapiro said Pennsylvania public safety agencies are working with AI experts to address the threats AI poses, and his administration is “taking a multi-agency approach” in protecting Pennsylvania consumers from potential AI security threats, such as fraud.

“This executive order is the product of months of careful consideration and planning around AI with a belief that we need to embrace AI, not fear it, but we need to deploy it responsibly,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s signature on Pennsylvania’s $45.5 billion budget brought relief Thursday across the commonwealth as the new school year approaches and quarterly payments come due.

But his administration’s decision to hold back hundreds of millions in funds for a handful of programs leaves uncertainty for some as school districts work to reconcile their budgets with the money they expect to receive from the state.

Shapiro touted the budget, which was delivered to his desk by the General Assembly 34 days after the June 30 deadline, as a commonsense spending plan that accomplishes many of the goals laid out in his campaign and budget address.

Budget Secretary Uri Monson informed legislative leaders in a memo this week that he would not release money for seven programs including more than $200 million for public education because the General Assembly has not passed fiscal code bills to authorize the spending.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, nonetheless late on Wednesday called the chamber back to session on Thursday so that Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, acting as Senate president, could sign the general appropriations bill, the final administrative step before sending it to Shapiro’s desk.

Although Democratic leaders said they disagreed that some of the programs require authorizing legislation, they said negotiations on the fiscal code language is ongoing. House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, said the House would reconvene when talks are finalized.

The frozen money, totaling $338 million, includes $7.5 million to pay for public defenders for the first time, nearly $21 million to increase ambulance reimbursement rates, $50 million in relief for struggling hospitals, $50 million for grants to help low-income homeowners with maintenance, and $10 million for stipends to attract students to the teaching profession.

The programs for which funding is frozen include $100 million for Level Up supplementary payments to the state’s 100 poorest school districts and $100 million for school mental health grants.

Pennsylvania School Boards Association Senior Director of Government Affairs Andrew Christ said school districts have 30 days after the state budget is finalized to reopen and reconcile their budgets with the funding they expect to receive from the state.

But with significant sums in state subsidies in limbo, some districts that have received Level Up payments in the past could be uncertain about what they will receive.

While Christ said it is safe to assume that the Education Department will use the same formula this year as it has used in the past, districts that are on the cusp of eligibility may not have a full picture of their financial situation until the money is released.

A delay in releasing the mental health grant money could also force school districts to move money from other areas in order to pay contracted providers, he said.

“It does leave some question marks for some schools and their programs,” Christ said.

Human services make up the largest share of the state budget, and county human services agencies and providers are often the most seriously affected by budget delays.

Richard Edley of the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association said the end of the impasse is a good thing because the strain on county human services would have been great and may have impacted Medicaid payments and federal matching funds if it had continued.

However, Edley said, the budget was disappointing for human services providers, who spoke out during budget negotiations about a $170 million cut in funding for intellectual and developmental disability care providers.

Advocates said money to pay the wages of direct support providers who care for individuals with severe autism and other disabilities was cut due to a drop in spending. But the drop in spending was a result of a workforce shortage driven by insufficient wages that has left thousands of people on a waiting list.

“The financial losses of providers are mounting. The administration and legislature believe providers will somehow ‘figure it out.’  Eventually they will not be able to,” Edley said.

Edley said he is hopeful that as lawmakers return to the negotiating table to work out the authorizing language for the frozen programs, they restore $100 million that had been earmarked to address mental health needs identified by the legislature’s Behavioral Health Commission.

That money, received as part of the state’s American Rescue Plan aid during the pandemic, was redirected in the Senate’s version of the budget to the school mental health program.

The House passed legislation in June with a bipartisan 173-30 vote to direct the aid money into three streams to train and retain behavioral health professionals, provide criminal justice agencies with mental health resources and award grants to county mental health agencies and providers.

State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, and Sen. Maria Collett, D-Montgomery, held a rally at the Capitol last month on restoring the funding. Schlossberg said the Senate budget amendment redirecting the pandemic aid to school grants was improper and gave the appearance that it was an either-or proposition.

In past budgets, the fiscal code has included supplementary appropriations and it is still possible to restore the funding approved in the House.

“The money is absolutely still there to make that happen,” Schlossberg said.

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That’s what Shenandoah Valley School District Superintendent Brian Waite says he needs to properly serve his students. His school system is in one of Pennsylvania’s poorest regions with 80% of Shenandoah Valley’s roughly 1,200 students economically disadvantaged. 

Waite was glad Gov. Josh Shapiro acknowledged the longstanding inequity in the state’s education funding formula during his budget address earlier this month. But Shapiro’s proposed isn’t enough, Waite said, nor what he and others were hoping for when they successfully sued the state over the formula.

“We are grateful for every dollar of funding we receive,” the superintendent said. “But the final budget must be larger to meet the urgency of this moment. The size of the proposed budget increases are not the down payment we need to provide the quality public education guaranteed in the state constitution — and to begin to plan out a system that gives our kids what they deserve.”

Likewise, the attorneys who fought on behalf of his district and five others across the state — alongside parents and other plaintiffs, including the Pennsylvania NAACP — said the governor’s plan “does not do enough to meet the standard set by our state constitution.” 

The comments came a month after Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer issued a 786-page decision ruling Pennsylvania’s school funding formula unconstitutional after the long-running litigation. She found the stark disparities in student outcomes between high- and low-wealth districts were directly related to the vast difference in resources made available to them.

A spokesman from the governor’s office told The 74 that no one could predict allocations beyond this budget cycle, but that the current proposal “is not the final step” in addressing school funding inequity. 

Shapiro is asking for an additional $103.8 million for special education programs and $100 million for school safety and security grants. His proposal also includes $100 million to reduce and remediate environmental hazards in schools and a more than $60 million increase in higher education funding.

Attorneys from the Education Law Center-PA, The Public Interest Law Center and O’Melveny & Myers LLP said in a statement that this year’s increases to the basic education fund are .

Last year’s education budget, the attorneys noted, included a $225 million supplement for the 100 most underfunded school districts. These so-called Level Up monies prioritized those districts for the past two years. 

“This proposal also takes a step backward: while last year’s budget provided additional support for the Commonwealth’s most deeply underfunded districts through the Level Up program, this one does not,” the lawyers said in a joint statement. 

Waite, the Shenandoah Valley superintendent, said his students have waited long enough. The district’s English learner population has more than tripled in the past 15 years and classroom teachers of other disciplines are stretched thin.

“I have math teachers in the secondary level teaching more than one content area in the same classroom: Honors Trigonometry and Algebra II in one class — with geometry and trigonometry in another,” he said.

Many of the district’s rooftop exhaust fans and HVAC systems date back to 1982. It is also in need of masonry work on retaining walls, sidewalks and outdoor stairways, some of which are disintegrating and have not been upgraded in decades.

Susan Spicka, executive director for Education Voters of Pennsylvania, founded in 2008 to promote a pro public education agenda with the public, said she recognizes the enormity of creating a fair funding formula but wished to see a far bigger number in this latest budget proposal: She lamented that it did not appear to prioritize those school systems most in need. 

“For two years, the Legislature and governor, on a bipartisan basis, recognized we need to target money to the neediest districts,” she said. “To see he took a step backward was really strange, and very disappointing. That supplement has really made a very big difference in those school districts.”

Shapiro’s office, which at first insisted that Level Up funding was in the budget, did not respond to later pushback from critics.

The new governor addressed head-on Judge Jubelirer’s “call to action” in his recent budget announcement.

“Her remedy was for us to get around the table and come up with a solution that ensures every child has access to a thorough and efficient education,” he said of the judge’s decision. “While theoretically there’s still time left to file an appeal, all indications are that Judge Jubelirer’s ruling will stand. And that means we are all acknowledging that the court has ordered us to come to the table and come up with a better system, one that passes constitutional muster. I’m ready to meet you there.”

The budget will require approval from a Republican-control Senate and . The Legislature is required to approve the budget by June 30. 

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday ruled the state’s school funding formula unconstitutional, noting it leaves poor districts unable to afford the teachers, counselors, curriculum and building repairs necessary to meet students’ needs  — and keep them safe. 

After an eight-year legal battle, Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer’s decision came down resoundingly on the side of the families, school districts and advocates who sued for more money. She found the stark disparities in outcomes between students in high- and low-wealth districts were directly related to the vast difference in resources made available to them by a state funding formula reliant on local property taxes.

Jubelirer said it is now up to the state to craft a more equitable system for its schoolchildren. Her ruling did not come with a timetable — though it did advise all relevant parties to do so at “the first opportunity” — nor a specific payment amount. Although Pennsylvania has since directed more money to its public schools, the plaintiffs had alleged districts were being underfunded by $4.6 billion a year.

“All witnesses agree that every child can learn,” the judge concluded at the end of her . “It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”

Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, a senior attorney with the Public Interest Law Center who represented the school districts, said the judge’s ruling marked an extraordinary moment. 

“This is an earthquake that will reverberate for the children of Pennsylvania for a long, long, long time,” he said.

Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, another of the firms challenging the funding formula, called the ruling a clear and unequivocal victory for public school children across Pennsylvania. 

“The court ruled the right to an education is a fundamental right,” she said, adding it “found that nothing justifies the gross disparities between low-wealth and high-wealth school districts that we see across our state. We are excited and really enthusiastic about what will happen for the trajectory of the lives of schoolchildren in Pennsylvania.”

It’s unclear whether the decision will be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Patrick Northen, John Krill and Anthony Holtzman, three of the defendants’ attorneys, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. During the trial, they argued state lawmakers had met their constitutional obligations to provide an “adequate education” and questioned whether the plaintiff districts had directed their resources to meet the most serious student needs.

Pennsylvania’s school funding formula has long been considered among the nation’s most inequitable, with 38% coming from the state and 43% from local property taxes. That ratio ranks the Commonwealth 45th nationally, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Jubelirer ruled local control — the notion that local communities decide on their own how much of their resources to devote to public education — was no excuse for the types of inequities described during the 49-day trial. 

The court proceedings involved dozens of witnesses — many from the six school districts that filed the lawsuit back in November 2014 — along with 1,700 exhibits that proved, in her opinion, poor districts were unable to meet students’ needs. 

Many students do not qualify for college-level Advanced Placement courses in high school because of an achievement gap that began in their elementary years that could not be corrected, administrators testified. 

A lack of space at one of William Penn’s elementary schools means art and music is taught in the basement in a room that has an opening to a sump pump. 

Makeshift classrooms have been set up inside hallways, closets and basements throughout these school systems. Many buildings are plagued by roaches, rodents, leaky roofs, lead paint, mold and asbestos. Some lack heat, air conditioning and potable water.

“It is evident to the Court that the current system of funding public education has disproportionately, negatively impacted students who attend schools in low-wealth school districts,” Jubelirer wrote. “This disparity is the result of a funding system that is heavily dependent on local tax revenue, which benefits students in high-wealth districts.” 

The evidence, she said, supported “the inescapable conclusion that these students are not receiving a meaningful opportunity to succeed,” adding that consistent achievement gaps for economically disadvantaged students was tantamount to a violation of the state Constitution’s equal protection clause.

She said, too, that the funding formula “does not adequately take into account student needs, which are generally higher in low-wealth districts.”

Jubelirer said the opposing side has not proven local control would be undermined by a more equitable funding system. 

“Local control could be promoted by providing low-wealth districts with real choice, instead of choices dictated by their lack of needed funds,” she wrote. 

The defendants told the court the state requires only a minimal basic education without regard to outcomes for students, which are influenced by several factors well beyond schools’ reach. They said, too, that the Commonwealth needs low-skill, low-wage labor. 

“I think there is a need for retail workers, people who crust,” said Krill, the lawyer defending then-Assembly Speaker Jake Corman, during the trial. “My point is, do these proficiency standards actually in any way imaginable serve the needs of the Commonwealth such as they should be mandatory across the board? I think the answer is no.” 

Newly elected Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro filed an in May 2022 in support of the lawsuit back when he served as the state’s attorney general, writing that the defendants in the case wanted the court only to determine whether Pennsylvania’s education system provides students with the “opportunity” to obtain a constitutionally sufficient education. 

“But they ask the Court to read too little into the word ‘opportunity,’” he wrote. “The opportunity… is meaningless if the public education system cannot actually provide a thorough and efficient education to all students, regardless of socioeconomic background.”

Shapiro, in a statement released Wednesday, seemed to support his initial argument. 

“Creating real opportunity for our children begins in our schools, and I believe every child in Pennsylvania should have access to a high-quality education and safe learning environment, regardless of their zip code,” he said. “My Administration is in the process of reviewing the Commonwealth Court’s opinion and we are determining next steps.” 

Acting Attorney General Michelle Henry said her office is still in the process of thoroughly reviewing the lengthy opinion, “but we were gratified to learn today that the Court agreed with our position, paving the way for Pennsylvania lawmakers to come together to create a new system that works for all children and families.”

The case was filed by the William Penn, Panther Valley, Greater Johnstown, Wilkes-Barre Area and Shenandoah Valley school districts alongside the School District of Lancaster. It names parents, children,  the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools among the petitioners. 

The current lists of defendants, which has changed since the case was first filed, includes Gov. Shapiro, Secretary of Education Khalid N. Mumin, Senate President pro tempore Kim Ward and House Speaker Mark Rozzi. During the trial, the governor’s office and the state education department did not fight to counter the plaintiffs’ claims while the state legislative leaders did.

The Commonwealth Court initially dismissed the case, siding with the defendants by ruling school funding decisions are the responsibility of the legislature, not the judicial branch. The plaintiffs appealed to the state Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the Commonwealth Court in 2017 for trial.

Urevick-Ackelsberg said the state’s obligation to fix the system starts now, even if the case is again appealed to the state Supreme Court. “We are going to assume the General Assembly is going to follow the law. We will be back in court to enforce whatever we need to to make sure they do so.”

The attorney said he believes the issue will be addressed relatively quickly. School funding cases are notoriously known to drag on for years, even after those challenging the formulas prevail in court.

“Do we expect this to take years and years? No,” he said. “If there is an appeal, we will do everything in our power to make sure the ruling is not stayed … and we get to work right away.”

Democrat Joshua Shapiro will be the next governor of Pennsylvania, beating out opponent Doug Mastriano by a wide margin, winning 56% of the vote compared to 42% for his opponent. Shapiro has said he would better fund public education and support abortion rights while his opponent pledged the opposite. “Tonight, voters from Gen Z to our seniors, voters from all walks of life, have given me the honor of a lifetime, given me the chance to serve you as Pennsylvania’s next governor,” Shapiro told supporters Tuesday night in suburban Philadelphia. Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville Wednesday identified Shapiro as the candidate to watch coming out of the 2022 election cycle.

The Pennsylvania governor’s race — a face-off between a well-funded ambitious young climber already eyed as a future presidential contender and a radical right-wing election denier whose own GOP party leaders refuse to support — is among the most watched in the nation for its 2024 implications. 

The winner could wield significant power over how votes are counted in the next presidential election, one in which Donald Trump seeks to like Republican Doug Mastriano, in a key battleground state.

Education is a leading issue in political contests across the country with Republicans pushing to remove discussions of race and gender from the classroom while leaning into greater parental control. But the script has flipped somewhat in Pennsylvania, with Mastriano’s stance so extreme he’s mobilized school board opponents to take unusual steps to block him while Democrat Josh Shapiro has embraced a school choice avenue usually reserved for conservatives. Both advocate stronger parent influence in schools. 

Mastriano, a 58-year-old retired Army colonel who joined the state Senate in 2019, has pledged to , — which — clamp down on teachings around race and privilege and ban transgender athletes from playing on the teams with which they identify.

Shapiro, the state’s attorney general since 2017, has said he will continue Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s mission to . Shapiro, 49, has for those school districts engaged in a multi-year legal battle with the state for g and called a Republican-backed bill to curb transgender athletes’ rights

But Shapiro favors ,” which would allow children attending the state’s poorest-performing schools to access money to pay for tutoring or tuition at a different public or private campus. The pending scholarship bill would 191,000 children — a vast majority are low-income students of color — in 382 schools across 76 of the state’s 500 school districts. 

Shapiro is leading in several polls and has raised more than $50 million for his campaign, the largest war chest in state history for that office. While Mastriano’s coffers are — and some Republicans wish they’d selected another candidate — the state lawmaker has at least one influential backer: . 

The former president said recently Mastriano would curb crime, bolster the state economy and work to ensure a fair election — but Shapiro said the candidate is motivated by a different objective. 

“For Doug Mastriano, this isn’t about the people of Pennsylvania — it’s about a victory for Donald Trump in 2024,” the attorney general wrote on Sept. 30. “He knows that the key to a presidential win is by winning Pennsylvania, and he’ll use whatever means necessary to make it happen.”

Mastriano, who recently announced in the lead up to the Nov. 8 election to somehow improve his chances, said he is the right candidate to put the state in order. Known for his extreme views, he’s from a 2019 assertion that women who violate abortion restrictions should be charged with murder. The candidate also has pledged to toughen voting laws, a notion that could gain support in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.  

“With record high inflation, increased crime, burdensome taxes, and indoctrination of our kids under failed Democrat policy, it’s time for a bold leader to get our state back on track,” he wrote Sept. 29. “I’ll unshackle our energy sector, restore law and order, slash taxes, and ban CRT.”

But it was Mastriano’s early statements about how he would approach school funding that aligned forces across several fronts to thwart him. Mastriano said in March he’d like to and would allow students to attend a school of their choosing, including public, private, religious, cyber or homeschool.

“This extreme proposal would be devastating to Pennsylvania’s public schools and 1.7 million students,” according to a statement from the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Imagine a public education system with half the teachers, counselors, nurses, and support staff who teach and serve our students.”

The Republican — 70 school board members from across the state signed an condemning the strategy, calling it “out of touch with the vast majority of Pennsylvania families” — but no new plan has been unveiled. 

Chris Lilienthal, spokesman for the 178,000-member teachers association, said Mastriano never responded to an invitation to discuss pressing educational issues either through a survey or live interview with the union’s political action committee.

Shapiro did meet with the group — and . 

“We sat down with Attorney General Shapiro and walked away thinking he listens to the concerns of educators,” Lilienthal said. “He talked about reducing the overuse of standardized testing … and, in this age of teacher shortages, he talked about just how important that issue will be if elected governor. We have not heard Mastriano even talk about that.” 

David Lapp, director of policy research at , a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, said equity should be the new governor’s top priority concerning education. 

“Whether it is in access to school facilities, teachers and staff, challenging curriculum, or a positive school climate, the Pennsylvania public school system is defined by inequity,” said Lapp, whose group uses research as the basis for improving education for traditionally underserved students. “Virtually no other state’s public schools provide so much to its white students and wealthy students while providing so little to its students of color and its low-income students.” 

A member of the Senate Education Committee, Mastriano said he would, if elected, crack down on teachings about race and privilege — , saying they are “detrimental” and can lead to bullying. He called policies to protect transgender students “bat crap crazy” — he’s likened ” — telling supporters this summer that they won’t have to worry about “male domination” on women’s athletic teams. 

He’s also called out his opponent for attending and sending his children to ” Jewish schools. Mastriano paid $5,000 in consulting fees to the far-right social media platform Gab, which embraces QAnon conspiracy theories, misinformation and . Its founder is a known anti-Semite from whom Mastriano has recently attempted to . 

Neither candidate returned calls for comment.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the tax-exempt Education Law Center, a key player in the years-long equitable school funding case, wouldn’t comment on either contender but said parents — and all Pennsylvanians — should pay close attention to their positions on education.

“The state’s role is especially important in Pennsylvania’s less affluent communities that are unable to raise sufficient funding locally to provide students with a high-quality education,” she said. 

Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of The School District of Philadelphia, agreed that the outcome is critical.  

“Regardless of who is elected, it is my hope that they will ensure that the commonwealth finally meets its constitutional obligation to adequately and equitably fund our schools, solve our educator pipeline issues so that every student has access to a high-quality teacher, and invest again in our school facilities,” he said. 

Shapiro, a state representative from 2005 to 2011, has won wide support, including from a number of , some of whom have called Mastriano dangerous. 

Mastriano, in his current role, has promoted legislation to access and review all instructional materials used throughout the school year — and to opt out of curriculum they find objectionable.

Shapiro, a father of four, also has promised by giving them two seats on the state’s Board of Education.

“Right now, there are more seats reserved on the board for politicians than parents,” he wrote. “That needs to change.”

Mastriano made a name for himself by railing against mask mandates and business closures at the height of the pandemic and for promoting the Big Lie. He has faced calls for resignation for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection: Records show his campaign paid for buses headed to Washington, D.C. days before the deadly attack. 

He’s said he did not enter the Capitol building and has not been charged with a crime. But he has testified before the congressional committee investigating the assault. He cut short the interview after questioning its authority and later . 

Unlike his Democratic opponent, who’s received big money from outside the state, including deep-pocketed donors from California — and his wife, Kate Capshaw, among them — Mastriano’s campaign is funded mostly by small donations from within Pennsylvania. 

The candidate, who rarely grants interviews to mainstream news outlets, in May but has done little to campaign of late, leaving many questioning his wider voter appeal. His supporters include ” who says she speaks directly with God and espouses QAnon conspiracy theories.