Keystone Today

Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, recently expressed his disapproval of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. 

Shapiro reportedly previously asserted his support for school choice, but opted to exclude it from the budget due to disagreements between legislative chambers, according to a July 5 Twitter post from DeAngelis.

"Governor Josh Shapiro said he supported private school choice and even put it in his education platform before the election," DeAngelis said on Twitter. "He just sent out a statement indicating he will line-item veto the school choice program in the budget. He played the parents of Pennsylvania."

Shapiro issued a statement July 5 clarifying his decision to veto the inclusion of school choice.

“Over the weekend, Leader Bradford requested a legal memo from the Office of General Counsel, which confirmed that without enabling legislation setting up this program, my administration legally cannot implement it," Shapiro said in his statement. "Knowing that the two chambers will not reach consensus at this time to enact PASS, and unwilling to hold up our entire budget process over this issue, I will line-item veto the full $100 million appropriation, and it will not be part of this budget bill."

Shapiro, a Democrat, had reportedly been unwavering in his support for school choice throughout his campaign, and had explicitly stated his intention to sign a school choice bill into law if it successfully cleared the legislative process, Forbes reported June 30. The Pennsylvania Senate recently passed a school voucher bill which failed to gain approval from the House.

"This is a bad political calculation by Josh Shapiro," DeAngelis said in a post on Twitter. "Over 70% of parents with school age children support school choice in Pennsylvania. Josh Shapiro went to private school and sent his kids to private school. He put school choice in his education platform right before the election."