Early childhood educators and student teachers would benefit from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s latest budget pitch, which aims to expand existing grant and stipend programs.
Left out of his proposal was a wage increase for 200,000 workers who assist older and disabled adults with tasks like grooming, medication management, and housekeeping.
The union SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, which represents roughly 12,500 of these home care professionals, called the lack of additional funding “alarming” in an emailed statement.
“It reflects a familiar contradiction: policymakers acknowledge how essential home care is, yet the budget treats it as optional,” the union added.
Weeks before the budget plan was announced, five dozen state House Democrats signed a letter urging Shapiro to push for higher pay for direct care workers.
Last year’s budget directed $21 million to direct care, but the funding was limited to caregivers paid through a waiver — leaving out 94% of the workforce, according to lawmakers.
Shapiro’s new proposal, introduced last week in Harrisburg, is more generous to early childhood educators and student teachers, who largely praised it.
“We were happy. We appreciate the continued support,” said Jen DeBell, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children.
They would see modest gains under the proposed budget, which would increase funding for stipends and grants targeted at those roles.
Strengthening those vocations has been a yearslong priority for the Shapiro administration, as low wages and high turnover have whittled down the industry. “Child care workers are the workforce behind the workforce,” the administration wrote in a recent news release.
The governor's pitch does not guarantee funding. Lawmakers in the divided legislature will weigh Shapiro's proposal against their own priorities, and hammer out details in hearings leading up to the June 30 deadline.
But the governor’s budget sets the table, signalling what items will most likely make it into the final budget — and those that won’t.
Stipends for student teachers
”If you're working full-time as part of your training to become a teacher, you should get paid for that,” Shapiro said during his budget address in the Capitol.
Gavin Mitsdarfer of Pennsylvania Western University is one of those trainees, and among the estimated 2,300 who will receive $10,000 stipends from the Student Teacher Support Program during the current school year.
Shapiro has proposed a $5 million increase to the nearly two-year-old program, which would bring the total funding to $35 million. Contacted by Spotlight PA, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which administers the program, said it didn’t yet have projections of how many additional teachers an increase would cover.
To be eligible for the stipend, education majors must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and commit to teaching in Pennsylvania for at least three years after graduating.
Pennsylvania requires teachers to complete a 12-week, full-time course under the supervision of an experienced educator. This work is unpaid, which is why Mitsdarfer said the stipend is "such an amazing benefit.”
He estimated he’ll spend at least $1,000 on gas this semester to drive from Edinboro to his two student teacher placements.
Lawmakers from both major parties have expressed support for the stipend program, which is aimed at keeping teachers in the profession as retirements and turnover dwindle the workforce.
State Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver (R., Snyder), chair of her chamber’s Education Committee, said stipends can strengthen Pennsylvania's educator pipeline.
“Student teaching is full-time work, and for many candidates the financial burden can be a barrier,” she said via email, adding that she’d support increasing the funding as long as there are checks that the program is “transparent, targeted, and accountable.”
The state needs to certify between 2,000 and 4,000 new teachers every year to keep up with attrition, according to Edward Fuller, a Penn State professor who studies education policy.
“I personally have a student in my class who said that the opportunity to get a stipend convinced her to remain in teacher prep,” Fuller told Spotlight PA over email.
Fuller would like the stipend program to prioritize teachers of color. According to a December 2024 report from the state Department of Education, fewer than 7.4% of Pennsylvania teachers are people of color, despite 40% of elementary and secondary students belonging to racial or ethnic minority groups.
Small gains for child care workers
Child care workers across Pennsylvania will soon receive $450 bonuses, due to a new line item in the budget Shapiro signed last year.
This year, Shapiro wants to boost that amount to $630, which excites Laura Grill, executive director of Hansel & Gretel Early Learning Center in Harrisburg.
Though $630 isn't a lot of money, Grill and DeBell said these educators appreciate Shapiro recognizing the importance of their profession.
The proposed increase is especially meaningful in light of last year's budget impasse. Pre-K Counts teachers went without a portion of their salaries for more than four months. For some, the backpay was as much as $10,000.
Grill said the delay in pay wrecked morale and burned out staff. Child care educators don't expect to become rich, Grill said, but they do need to earn enough to survive.
“If we can help give them a few dollars more in their pocket from time to time, I think it helps build self-respect,” she said.
Child care work is among the lowest-paid occupations in the state. The annual mean salary in Pennsylvania for these workers is $29,510, or $567.50 a week, according to 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That makes $630 equivalent to more than a week's wages for a typical child care worker, an amount “large enough to be meaningful," said Jessica Brown, a University of South Carolina economist who studies the industry.
Other states have seen success with bonus programs. Brown pointed to a pilot in Virginia that cut turnover in half among early childhood teachers who received $1,500 bonuses if they remained at their program for eight months. A similar initiative out of Maryland had more modest results: Bonuses had a more positive effect on the child care workers who earned less.
Elsewhere in Shapiro's proposed budget is a $2 million bump to the state’s Head Start program.
Head Start provides child care to families with incomes at or below 100% of the federal poverty level. Most of the funding comes from the federal government, but state dollars allow more children to enroll, while providing wraparound services such as medical screenings and nutrition assistance.
Because last year's budget didn't increase Head Start funding, said Kara McFalls, executive director of the Pennsylvania Head Start Association, she hoped Shapiro would pitch more than $2 million this year.
“Unfortunately, the $2 million increase is not enough to alleviate the financial issues facing PA Head Start programs,” she told Spotlight PA, noting many accrued debt or cut services during last year’s budget impasse.
No added funding for home care
Home care providers were “extremely disappointed” in Shapiro’s budget proposal, according to the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, an industry group.
Mia Haney, CEO of the group, told Spotlight PA the lack of funding ignores the high need for more professional caregivers.
More than one in five Pennsylvanians will be 65 or older by the end of the decade, according to a 2025 report from the state’s Independent Fiscal Office. Direct care helps older and disabled adults live independently, and not in nursing homes, which can be costly and entail a loss of independence.
Josh Dean, a 35-year-old data support specialist in Mechanicsburg with brittle bone disease, told Spotlight PA he couldn’t live alone without this support.
Several professional caregivers assist him with getting dressed and meal preparation throughout a given week.
He worries the entire home care system will collapse if wages are not improved. One of his aides has been with him for nearly 12 years and earns $13 an hour.
“I’m really lucky to have her,” said Dean.
The hourly mean wage for a home health or personal care aide in Pennsylvania is $15.11, according to May 2024 data. People can earn more working in other entry-level positions, including as telemarketers, package handlers, and library clerks.
When one of Dean’s aides quits for a higher-paying job, which has happened previously, he said he feels both disappointed and sympathetic: “I always tell them, do what's best for you, if you have to get another job.”
State House Democrats diverge from Shapiro on the issue.
In their Dec. 18 letter to Shapiro advocating for the industry, they argued boosting pay for all direct care workers would “create parity across care models, strengthen the workforce, and protect access to essential services for consumers statewide.”
Whether the issue will inform upcoming budget negotiations is unclear.
Asked about Shapiro’s budget pitch not addressing home care, state Rep. Dan Williams (D., Chester), chair of his chamber’s Human Services Committee and a signee of the letter, told Spotlight PA the proposal is just a starting point.
“In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking into all the details as we begin the budget negotiation process,” he said.