Lawmakers hope to 'vet' the issue

 

By Yasmin Tadjdeh | PA Independent

 

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania residents have begun to sound off on school choice in front of the state House Education Committee.

 

The committee recently launched a series of hearings where residents are invited to give their opinion on school choice, vouchers and the expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC. 

 

Committee members heard testimony from Pennsylvanians on Wednesday and Thursday at Temple University outside of Philadelphia. The committee will hear from more residents Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 in Harrisburg.

 

The hearings are a way to “sit down and look at school choice and examine the criticism … and what has been said by those who support school choice,” said state Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, committee chairman.

 

Vouchers would redirect a portion of the state’s per-pupil public education spending and allow parents to put the money toward tuition at private schools. The EITC is funded through business contributions and provides scholarships to low- and middle-income students to attend private schools. In exchange for their contributions, businesses receive a 75 percent tax credit. The program is capped at $75 million this year, up from $60 million last year.

 

Clymer said the hearings are about “vetting the issue, allowing both sides to come forward.”

 

When the hearings are completed the House Education Committee will present the collected information to the primary sponsors of the two main education bills from this past session, SB 1 and HB 1330, said Clymer. The committee then will serve as an advisory group to the lawmakers.

 

State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-Montgomery, is the main sponsor of HB 1330, while state Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, is the main sponsor of SB 1.

 

Quigley’s proposal would have increased the EITC cap to $200 million, and Piccola’s bill would create a broad voucher program for low-income students that would expand during a four-year period to include all families who fall below 300 percent of the federal poverty line. A family of four who fall below 300 percent of the federal poverty line earn about $62,000 a year.

 

State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, minority chairman of the House Education Committee, said the hearings are “an effort to make …  (the process) as open as possible.”

 

It’s a “chance to step back and get well-informed on the issue,” said Roebuck.

 

Other hearings slated to take place in State College, Pittsburgh and Allentown have been slightly changed; the State College hearings will now be in Harrisburg, and the Allentown and Pittsburgh hearings will be converted to tours, where members will speak with school administrators, teachers and students, said Clymer.

 

Clymer said the reason for the change is for the convenience of committee members and the public. Clymer also said that converting the Allentown and Pittsburgh hearings into tours of schools would be a better indicator of how the administrators, teachers and students are viewing the issue of choice.

 

Otto Banks, executive director of the REACH Foundation, a grassroots coalition working toward more parental choice in education, said his organization has “heard loud and clear” from legislators that they support increasing school choice in Pennsylvania, but how to do it is uncertain.

 

Banks said he “absolutely” believes a school choice bill can pass in the fall.

 

Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, however, said a school choice bill passing this fall will be a “tough sell.”

 

“If it was an easy sell, they would have passed it (in June),” said Madonna. “There is no evidence there is a majority in either chamber to pass it.”

 

Legislative leaders had closed-door discussions on the voucher and EITC bills during the final weeks of the budget discussions in June, but failed to reach an agreement. A last-minute compromise bill, introduced by state Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, combined elements of vouchers and the EITC expansion. Christiana’s bill also did not pass in June, and could be passed in the fall.

 

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, or PSEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, declined to comment, but in June released a memo to lawmakers that said they oppose “any legislation that takes public money directly from public schools — particularly struggling schools and the students they serve — to provide a voucher to private and parochial schools.”

 

The issue with the bills, said Madonna, lies in that school choice cuts across party lines, and the public largely does not support it. Democrats generally oppose school choice, with Senate and House Republican leadership supporting it, but not all rank and file Republicans agree.

 

Madonna said the three highest profile legislative issues this fall will be transportation funding, liquor store privatization and school choice.