Budget bills signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday will fund efforts aimed at attracting new workers to a variety of fields struggling with crippling worker shortages.

The spending plan provides $25 million for incentives for those working in child care and allocates $30 million for stipends for student teachers.

The budget provides $21 million for direct care workers who are employed in the patient-directed care program. The budget does not provide additional funding for other direct care workers.

Child Care Works

The budget also establishes the Child Care Recruitment and Retention program, which will provide roughly $450 more annually per employee to licensed childcare centers with collaborative agreements in the Child Care Works program.

Advocacy groups have estimated that there are more than 3,000 unfilled childcare positions in the state, leaving as many as 25,000 without access to daycare programs.

Shapiro called for the boost in funding to recruit more child care workers in his budget proposal. At the time, state officials pointed to a 2021 study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry that estimated the state economy loses $3.5 billion annually because of the struggle parents have finding adequate childcare. Over a third of parents report that childcare problems have impacted their ability to work.

Student teacher stipends

The state began offering stipends for student teachers last school year in a bid to encourage more young people to pursue careers in education. This year’s allocation is a $10 million increase but still falls short of what advocates say is needed to provide stipends to all student teachers.

As the state grapples with a drop in the number of candidates for teaching jobs, school districts have been forced to increasingly rely on emergency permits to staff hard-to-fill teaching jobs.

More than 2,000 student teachers got stipends last year. But, 4,000 student teachers applied for stipends and on average, about 9,000 teachers leave the field each year.

The program offers student teachers who commit to teaching in Pennsylvania for three years after graduation a $10,000 stipend during student teaching to help cover the costs of tuition, rent, food, commuting to their school site, and other necessities that make it possible for them to earn their degrees. Those who student teach in hard-to-staff schools qualify for an additional $5,000.

“With thousands of classroom vacancies across the state, it is concerning that thousands of aspiring educators will be left without access to the student teacher stipend program,” said Laura Boyce, executive director of Teach Plus Pennsylvania. “We look forward to working closely with Governor Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and members of the General Assembly to solve this urgent workforce crisis.”

Direct care workers

While the budget provides additional funding to boost pay for some direct care workers, the measure won’t help the vast majority of people working in the field, industry officials say.

Shapiro called for the additional direct care funding to boost pay wages for 8,500 workers serving seniors and adults with physical disabilities.

However, 94% of direct care workers are employed by agencies and they are shut out of the funding boost.

A rate and wage study commissioned by the Department of Human Services and released earlier this year estimated that the state would need a 23% boost to its reimbursements for agency-employed direct care workers to keep pace with wages of direct care workers in other states. The price tag of that reimbursement hike would top $800 million.

The average wage for direct care workers was just under $16 an hour in 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Homecare Association.

More than 400,000 Pennsylvania residents — the elderly and people with disabilities — rely on home health care.

The shortage of workers means 112,500 shifts go unfilled each month, Mia Haney, executive director of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, told CapitolWire/State Affairs in September.

“Pennsylvania’s legislature had the opportunity to address the state’s home care crisis but instead chose politics over people. Instead of solving the problem, lawmakers approved funding for just 6% of workers — while abandoning the 94% of caregivers who deliver the overwhelming majority of care across the Commonwealth. This is not how you stabilize a collapsing system; this is how you deepen a crisis,” Haney said in a statement released after the budget vote.

The low pay translates into constant worker turnover as 8 out of 10 direct care workers leave the industry within a year, often to take better-paying jobs in other fields, like fast food, according to the trade group.