HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s state Senate moved past a longstanding budget feud Wednesday and approved school-funding legislation that would send millions more to subsidize private school tuition and create a student-teacher stipend to try to stem a shortage of teachers.
In addition to subsidies for private schools and student teachers, it also ties up some loose ends from a nearly five-month-old dispute over elements of the state’s spending plan for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate, 43-7, and goes to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Those include allowing more than $300 million to flow to libraries and community colleges, as well as $100 million in federal aid to flow to school mental health services and $75 million to clean up lead, asbestos, mold and other environmental health hazards in school buildings.
Previous versions of the bill had stalled, until Democrats dropped a provision that Republicans opposed …