PITTSBURGH (TNS) — The debate over school vouchers, which held up last year’s state budget, is back.
And this year’s disagreement, with input from Pennsylvania lawmakers and celebrities including billionaire rapper Jay-Z, is heating up fast.
Discussions around school choice, often a blue vs. red issue, rekindled in Pennsylvania last month when the Senate Education Committee passed a bill House Democrats killed last year. The bill would revive the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success Scholarship Program, or PASS scholarships, which would funnel between $2,500 to $15,000 to qualifying students in the state’s lowest-performing schools.
The bill, which passed the committee with the support of one Democrat, could now restart the school choice debate at a time when lawmakers are weeding through the state budget, due June 30, which includes billions of additional education dollars aimed at responding to a Commonwealth Court ruling deeming Pennsylvania’s education funding system unconstitutional.
“It’s not like there had been a big push for it last year,” Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, a senior attorney at Public Interest Law Center, one of the organizations involved in the state’s fair funding lawsuit, said of vouchers. “It really came in the middle of the budget deal so I don’t think anyone’s particularly surprised that people are trying again.”
The fight over school choice erupted in Pennsylvania last year when Gov. Josh Shapiro voiced his support for what at the time was a proposed $100 million voucher system.
Mr. Shapiro’s approval of the Republican-backed proposal separated him from many of his fellow Democrats who typically say vouchers take money away from already struggling school districts. Those districts were at the center of a landmark ruling last year that deemed Pennsylvania’s education funding system unconstitutional based on its reliance on property taxes. That means, the ruling found, that students in poorer districts have fewer resources and opportunities than their wealthier counterparts.
And, Democrats argue, Pennsylvania already sets aside millions of dollars each year for tax credits presented to businesses that give scholarships to private schools.
Republicans, on the other hand, assert that the school choice program expands options for students and parents in already struggling districts. School choice advocates across the country are pushing to get more students from poor districts into private or religious schools.
But by July last year, Mr. Shapiro, facing an already delayed state budget, said he would veto the program, citing an “unwillingness” to further stall the budget over the program that was fiercely opposed by House Democrats. Mr. Shapiro at the time, however, did appear to hold open the door to future conversations around the program.
Still, the move shocked Republicans. Rep. Seth Grove, R- York and the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee at the time called the decision “historic in its stupidity.”
Now, Republicans are working to change that.
Under the revived bill, scholarships could range from $2,500 for students in half-day kindergarten, $10,000 for ninth through 12th grade students and $15,000 for those in special education. To qualify, students would have to live within an attendance boundary of a low-achieving school and reside in a household with an income 250% below federal poverty guidelines.
“Parents should have the ability to determine the best educational opportunity for their child, not a ZIP code,” Sen. Judy Ward, R- Blair, said during the May 7 Senate Education Committee meeting. “The legislation empowers parents to find that opportunity that best suits their child’s needs.”
And as Pennsylvania reenters the national spotlight on school choice, organizations such as Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation have shown support for the voucher program.
“The initiative would empower parents and caretakers to evaluate multiple school programs and make informed scholastic decisions for the well-being of their children,” a company statement reads. “Otherwise, parents are simply at the mercy of the system, where their kids’ academic futures are predetermined based on economic status and the location of their homes. The reality is the current system is fundamentally flawed and failing our youth.”
The company is now calling on the state to invest $300 million in the program, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
But Mr. Urevick-Ackelsberg called efforts to restart the program this year “weak.”
Instead of focusing on vouchers, he said, lawmakers should work to pass a bill approved by a deeply divided state House last week. The bill sets Mr. Shapiro up to increase basic education funding by nearly $1.1 billion in 2024-25 while also planning for a seven-year series of increases.
“Now there’s actually a plan, a plan that has been passed by the House, a plan that’s been endorsed by the governor, which will actually infuse billions of dollars into the public school system over a number of years,” Mr. Urevick-Ackelsberg said. “So we have a real bill with a real price tag that we need to fund.”
Other organizations including Pennsylvania’s NAACP chapter and Education Voters of Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit advocacy group, sent their own letters following the May vote.
“Every lawmaker who votes to support vouchers votes to support discrimination against students,” Susan Spicka, Education Voter’s executive director, wrote on the organization’s website.
The bill will now head to the Senate.
“We are at a moment here where we can actually begin to turn the corner in our public education system,” Mr. Urevick-Ackelsberg said, “and that is where every ounce of energy in this state should be.”
