Dinniman: Compromise is the key on House, Senate school choice bills
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent
As school choice advocates celebrated the 10th anniversary of a major state policy victory Tuesday, they are looking ahead to more victories in the coming months as school choice initiatives advance in the state House and Senate with the support of Gov. Tom Corbett.
About a thousand students from private schools around the state gathered in Harrisburg on Tuesday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC, program, which provides scholarships for low income students to attend private schools.
The EITC program was the major school choice victory of Gov. Tom Ridge’s administration, which failed to pass a broader voucher program pushed by the governor. With the EITC a decade old, state lawmakers are once again looking to expand educational opportunities for Pennsylvania’s lowest income students, though a key state senator said compromise will be the key to getting the package to the governor’s desk.
Donations from Pennsylvania businesses fund the EITC program, which are directed to nonprofits throughout the state. In return for their donations, businesses receive a 75 percent tax credit. The contributions are distributed to low income students who wish to attend private schools and is capped at $60 million for the current fiscal year.
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Some of those at Tuesday’s rally — like the 18 members of Kathleen Nelson’s third grade class at Cathedral School in Harrisburg — are too young to remember Pennsylvania before the EITC program. Rather than being saved from failing public schools, most of her students were able to have a better education from the very beginning, Nelson said.
Dan Nazarnk, a sixth grade student from York County, said the EITC made it possible for him go to private school.
During the first 10 years of the program, more than 300,000 students have taken advantage of the scholarships provided by the program, including more than 44,000 last year alone.
But as students and teachers celebrated the anniversary of the EITC, the senators and representatives see larger opportunities on the horizon, including a private school voucher program being pushed from both sides of the aisle in the state Senate.
“The EITC is only one pillar of choice,” said state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, the lead sponsor of the voucher bill. “What we need in this state is a broad-based voucher program and we need it now.”
Senate Republicans struck a deal with the Corbett administration last week on the voucher program contained in S.B. 1. The deal will delay the implementation of the voucher program until the 2012-13 school year and give the governor more control over the board that will oversee the program.
On Tuesday, Corbett’s Secretary of Education, Ronald Tomalis, told the crowd gathered at the Capitol that the governor “strongly supports S.B. 1,” the loudest public endorsement of the proposal to come from the administration.
“We want to see it become law so that all children throughout the commonwealth can benefit from the opportunities that we all deserve to have,” Tomalis said.
The Senate plan would expand during the course of four years, beginning with the state’s poorest students in 144 failing schools in the first year. In the third year, all families below 130 percent of the poverty level would be eligible for vouchers, regardless of their school district. In the fourth year, all families below 300 percent of the poverty level would be eligible.
Members of the state House are pushing an expanded EITC program instead of a voucher program, which may not have enough support to get through the lower chamber. The House’s proposal would increase the size of the EITC program from $60 million this year to $100 million in 2011-12 and $200 million in 2012-13.
State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-Montgomery, the prime sponsor of that effort, also spoke at Tuesday’s rally.
“The more choice you give to people and the more opportunities you give to people, the better they are going to do,” Quigley said.
When it comes to the EITC program, Tomalis said the governor would stick to his proposed budget, which gives the scholarship program $75 million next year.
The bill, HB 1330, passed out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday and is poised for a final vote next week.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, objects to the Senate plan because it would redirect some state-level education funds away from school districts. The PSEA does not have a position on the House’s proposal, but generally opposes the expansion of the tax credit program.
With the state Senate and House differing on the specifics of the school choice initiative, state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, said both sides should seek to compromise on what they agree on.
He said the Senate’s proposal may ultimately be scaled back to include only the first two years of the proposed four year roll-out, with an expanded EITC program filling in the rest.
“If they’re not willing to compromise, it’s going to be a shame for the public schools,” Dinniman said. “The most important thing is that at long last there is a debate on education happening here.”
Dinniman said it was important for academic and fiscal accountability to be included in the final package, so the state can track the money spent on the school choice initiative and collect data on the performance of students who take advantage of vouchers and scholarships. The Senate plan includes a provision to require voucher recipients to take national standardized tests even if they are attending private school.
That data, he said, will give lawmakers an idea of what direction to move with further education reforms.
