This story was initially printed by The Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Pennsylvania Training Secretary Khalid Mumin will resign from his place in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s cupboard subsequent month, the governor’s workplace introduced Friday afternoon.
Mumin was confirmed in June 2023 about six months after Shapiro took workplace and has presided over a few of the administration’s early successes resembling growing funding for Ok-12 public colleges by $1.5 billion over the past two budgets and offering free breakfast for 1.7 million public faculty college students.
Mumin will resign Dec. 6 and Government Deputy Secretary of Training Angela Fitterer will take over as interim secretary. A press release from Shapiro’s workplace didn’t say why Mumin is stepping down.
Shapiro mentioned in a press release that Mumin has devoted his life and profession to making sure that Pennsylvania kids have a high quality schooling that units them up for fulfillment.
“He has led the Pennsylvania Division of Training with ardour and integrity. I’m grateful for his service to Pennsylvania’s college students and educators and need him nice success in his future endeavors,” Shapiro mentioned.
Mumin mentioned it has been the honour of a lifetime to function schooling secretary.
“I started my profession as a instructor in a classroom, and people early experiences watching college students get enthusiastic about studying impressed me to turn out to be a principal, a superintendent, and in the end Secretary of Training, so I might proceed to combat for these college students to get extra help and extra alternatives,” Mumin mentioned. “I’m so grateful to Governor Shapiro for this chance to steer the Pennsylvania Division of Training and assist construct a shiny future for Pennsylvania’s college students and educators.”
State Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill), chairman of the Legislature’s schooling committee, mentioned he wished Mumin the most effective and added, “I stay up for working with Performing Secretary Fitterer and the governor’s nominee to enhance our schooling system, from Pre-Ok to graduate faculty.”
Earlier than Shapiro tapped Mumin for his cupboard, he served as superintendent of the Decrease Merion faculty district in Montgomery County. Mumin, who started his profession as a classroom instructor within the Franklin County group of Scotland in 1997, additionally has served as superintendent of the Studying public colleges.
Mumin’s tenure coincided with the decision of a decade of litigation over the state’s public schooling funding components, which a bunch of college districts, dad and mom and advocates argued put college students in much less rich areas at a drawback due to its reliance on property taxes.
A Commonwealth Courtroom choose ordered Shapiro and the Normal Meeting in February 2023 to appropriate the inequities and a interbranch fee discovered the state wanted to make investments $5.4 billion in underfunded colleges to convey them as much as par with the state’s most profitable faculty districts.
This yr’s finances contains about $526 million towards that purpose, however lawmakers had been unable to succeed in a compromise that will assure future installments to shut the hole.
Shapiro additionally touted the schooling division’s success in strengthening profession and technical teaching programs, investments in pupil psychological well being, repairs for colleges and offering free menstrual merchandise for college kids.
The governor’s workplace additionally credited Mumin with bringing collectively larger schooling leaders collectively to rethink larger schooling in Pennsylvania, establishing a state Board of Larger Training to supply extra help for public universities and make school schooling extra inexpensive.