Mastriano’s Disastrous Education Policy
As Mastriano grew to national notoriety with his irresponsible attacks on efforts to keep us safe from the pandemic and on our democratic system of government, one line of attack was to point out that, besides his increasingly deranged views on these issues, there was very little to Doug Mastriano. His legislative agenda was trivial and he didn’t seem to have opinions on the issues of the day.
We were better off when Mastriano didn’t tell us what he thought.
Mastriano promises us, “I want to ban abortion, period” — even in cases of rape, incest, or health risks to the mother. On guns, Mastriano wants to make Pennsylvania “a Second Amendment sanctuary” for unrestricted firearms ownership. And of course he promises to appoint a secretary of state who will assist him in dismantling our election system.
But it might be in the field of education where Mastriano has the most dangerous ideas. Short summary: he plans to destroy public education in Pennsylvania.
Like his plan on abortion, Mastriano’s education plan is simple. Basically, he would cut education roughly in half and then would convert it from a payment to schools into a grant to families with children. He summarized, “I think instead of 19,000 [dollars], we fund each student around 9,000 or 10,000 and they can decide which school to go to, public school, private school, religious school, cyber school, or home school,” and he continued, “And the money goes to the kids. And I believe that would incentivize and drive down the costs of public education.”
This would accomplish the longstanding dream of segregationists and Christian nationalists to put segregation academies, Christian schools – and nothing at all – on an equal footing with public schools. Instead of carrying out its most basic function – seeing to the creation of an informed citizenry through the instrument of public education – the state government simply write a check to every family with children and say, “do whatever.”
Susan Spicka, leader of a Pennsylvania education advocacy group, said, “This is a policy that would break the schools that are working well, and make things even worse for kids in the schools that are struggling,” She summarized, “It’s incomprehensible.”
Pennsylvania already underfunds its schools and is suffering a severe shortage of new teachers entering the profession. Mastriano’s funding levels would put us on a par with Mississippi. But it's the change in purpose that would do the most damage. Religious conservatives and white nationalists have made public schools a target ever since the Supreme Court’s “Brown vs. Board of Education” decision. Mastriano’s plan would make Pennsylvania the first state to destroy its public school system.