Opponents condemn bill as cost to poor schools
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Children from low-income families who are enrolled in 144 failing public schools will have access to vouchers worth about $7,700 each under a program approved by the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.
The committee approved a modified version of Gov. Tom Corbett’s school choice initiative, which leaders said was an acceptable middle road between statewide voucher programs and narrowly focused alternatives floated during this session.
The bill creates a school voucher program for students in 17 of the state’s 500 school districts beginning in the 2012-2013 school year and expands the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC, to double the possible number of eligible students.
Voucher opponents call the plan a new entitlement program for a small number of students that will be funded at the expense of poor school districts.
After bipartisan approval by the committee, the state Senate is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday or early next week. If it passes, the bill will go to the state House for consideration.
“The time has come for adoption of a rescue plan for those students who have been failed by the current system,” said state Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, committee chairman and a lead sponsor of the school choice bill.
Cost of voucher program
Details about the cost of the new voucher program or the number of eligible students were not available Tuesday, but Piccola said those numbers would be made public before the state Senate vote.
Students from families earning less than $29,000 annually will be eligible for the vouchers and families making less than $41,000 annually will be eligible for a partial voucher.
In the 17 districts with the 144 failing schools, the voucher’s value will range from $5,700 to $13,000 depending on the district. The average voucher would be about $7,700.
Pennsylvania spends more than $26 billion in federal, state and local tax dollars on public education.
But the exact cost of the voucher proposal will be drawn directly from the school districts that students chose to leave, said state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery.
“To help a small percentage of kids, we’re going to be hurting, badly, the overwhelming majority of kids,” said Leach. “I don’t know how, in good conscience, we can do that.”
Teacher unions also oppose the voucher plan, because they contend it will draw state-level funding away from public schools.
David Broderick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said the union was concerned about the speed with which the proposal was moving and would be working to convince House members of the bill’s shortcomings.
“We’re hoping that people will take a step back and realize the impact this is going to have on Pennsylvania’s public schools,” Broderick said.
Charter school reforms
The bill also contains reforms to the state’s charter schools to require more financial transparency, including annual audits and stiffer academic standards.
Democrats and Republicans praised these aspects of the charter school reforms.
State Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, who supported the bill, said vouchers should be looked at as part of an overall solution to Pennsylvania’s failing public schools.
“There are many answers, and this is what this bill does,” Dinniman said. “For some kids, the answer lies in vouchers; for some kids, the answer lies in charters and for the majority of those children, the answer will lay in an improved public education system.”
The bill does not include teacher evaluations, which are moving forward as a separate bill, or a secondary route for the creation of charter schools, both of which Corbett included in his agenda.
Under state law, only school districts are empowered to create charter schools, but charter school proponents are seeking a statewide approach that would create charter schools despite school district disapproval.
Piccola said he supported Corbett’s plan for alternative authorization of charter schools, but withheld that proposal from this bill because of concerns that the statewide authorizer “would put charter schools in places where they are not wanted.”
The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, which represents charter school administrations, wants the alternative authorization process to be a priority as the Legislature tackles education reforms.
The bill would establish a voucher program for students attending “failing schools,” as defined by the state Department of Education. Those schools are in the state’s bottom 5 percent based on student performance as measured on standardized testing.
Support for scholarship program
The bill will expand the 10-year-old EITC program that provides scholarships to students from low-income families and is funded by corporate contributions. The EITC will grow from $75 million this year to $100 million in next year's budget and $125 million in the following year. The EITC would continue to expand by 5 percent annually thereafter.
Linda Phelps, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools, which represents nonpublic, non-faith based schools in the state, supported the expansion of EITC.
“That is a program that our schools use to support families with low income," Phelps said. Independent schools are unsure about the voucher plan and are waiting to see how it may change, she said.
The EITC component of the legislation has wide legislative support; a similar plan passed in May with 190 votes in the state House.
Piccola said the expansion of the EITC could double the number of eligible students from 40,000 this year. Families who make less than $60,000 annually are eligible for the program.
—
TAKE ACTION
CONTACT:
