Days after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Pennsylvania’s 2023-24 budget bill into law, he came to Reading on Friday to speak about the plan’s historic increase in education funding and how it provides free school breakfasts each day for the state’s 1.7 million students.
During his visit to Millmont Elementary School he was joined by Dr. Khalid Mumin, the former Reading School District superintendent who was confirmed in June as the state’s education secretary.
Those two, state legislators from Berks County and Reading school officials talked about the importance of boosting education spending, and the universal free breakfast program in particular.
There are 68,412 students in Berks who can now receive those free breakfasts, including 17,790 in Reading, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
“This is critically important for our kids,” said Shapiro, speaking about how children distracted by hunger cannot focus on school work.
The Democratic governor credited lawmakers from both parties for supporting the $567 million hike in basic education funding for Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, the largest such increase in state history.
That includes a $46.5 million increase for the breakfast program — which Shapiro said will be in place to begin the school year — and free lunches to all students eligible for reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program.
Last school year students received federally subsidized breakfasts for free, but that funding is no longer in place.
Though the addition of free breakfasts to the state’s spending plan is only in place for this school year, Shapiro said he will continue to prioritize it in future budgets.
Friday’s ceremony took place in the Millmont cafeteria, where Mumin spoke about the many families in Reading and throughout the state who struggle with food insecurity, and who will benefit from the breakfast program.
He said he remembers being a student and having to turn in colored tickets to the cafeteria each day to receive free or reduced lunches, and how he felt the stigma attached to needing that help.
The free breakfast program eliminates that concern for students and families who might not feel comfortable asking for assistance, he said.
Also at Millmont, Shapiro performed a ceremonial signing of the budget while surrounded by incoming kindergarten students who were finishing their orientation week before classes start. Also on hand were the district’s 148 newly hired teachers, who were there for their own orientation.
Mumin, on his first public visit to Reading since beginning as education secretary, led a chant honoring the school’s nickname, with the crowd repeating “Once a Red Knight, always a Red Knight.”
Most recently he served as superintendent of the Lower Merion School District in Montgomery County, a post he began in October 2021 after leaving Reading.
The budget also invests a $50 million increase in special education funding, and a $23.5 million investment in workforce training and vo-tech programs to help expand the state’s workforce and help students to chart their own course, Shapiro said.
Pennsylvania’s House Republican Caucus acknowledged Friday that the spending increase was historic, but criticized Shapiro for vetoing the PASS (Pennsylvania Award for Student Success voucher) program that would have made scholarships available to students such as those at Millmont.
“Gov. Shapiro’s appearance at Millmont Elementary School today perpetuates the Democratic myth that funding is the only solution to every problem with Pennsylvania’s education system,” Jason Gottesman, House Republican spokesperson, said in a statement. “Today’s event, held at a failing school, is nothing but a reminder of the biggest missed opportunity in this budget — the failure to transform our education system so that it will truly be a child-first, family-focused experience.
“Instead of showing up at this school to celebrate more spending, Gov. Shapiro should have been there to deliver the hope he promised in his campaign — that students and families will not be held captive to schools that by all reasonable measures are failing.”
Mumin, though, spoke about how the state’s education funding has changed compared to how it was during the seven years he was Reading’s superintendent.
“Students and underfunded schools are going to get the basic resources that they need, and with a $46 million investment, students who come to school with an empty stomach are going to get a free breakfast no matter their family’s income,” he said.
With this budget, Pennsylvania will spend over $10 billion on public education, including a 9.74% increase in basic education funding for Reading’s schools.
Marsha Ganter a Reading School District social worker at Riverside Elementary School, spoke about how experiencing chronic hunger harms children and blocks their educational success.
“I am excited to talk about how important it is for us to have universal breakfast for students so they can start their day with the energy needed to grow,” she said. “Children need nutritious food on a consistent basis to learn and grow to their potential. Universal school breakfast is a huge step in the right direction for all the students.”
Rep. Manny Guzman, a Reading native whose district includes the city, said he used to be one of the students sitting in class at Tyson-Schoener Elementary School and thinking more about how hungry he was than on what the teachers were saying.
“I was one of the kids wondering where I’d get my next meal,” he said.
He praised the free breakfast program that will make a difference to children facing that same dilemma, he said.
“It’s crucial to give kids what they need to become productive citizens,” he said.
