From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):
On May 7, by a near party-line vote of 111 to 85, the Pennsylvania House passed HB 800, a reckless, unchecked, massive expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) school voucher program in Pennsylvania.
The PA House found $100 million in additional education funding in the 2019-2020 budget
- NOT for property tax relief,
- NOT for school safety funding,
- NOT for special education funding, and
- NOT for Basic Education Funding that would help drive desperately-needed resources into the most underfunded school districts in Pennsylvania.
No. The PA House supported an additional $100 million in education funding to be used to subsidize private school scholarships for families that earn more than twice the state’s average family income.
HB 800 now moves to the Senate. We need to stop it there.
Please go to https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-state-senator-to-reject-the-massive-school-voucher-expansion-passed-by-the-pennsylvania-house to send a message to tell your state senator to oppose HB 800 and any expansion of the EITC school voucher program in the 2019-2020 state budget.
HB 800 would increase funding for the EITC program in 2019-2020 by $100 million, to $210 million in EITC vouchers for private and religious school students plus $50 million in Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) vouchers. A built-in 10% annual increase in funding would bring the EITC total alone to an eye-popping $544 million in just 10 years–without any legislative action or oversight.
Most businesses receive tax reductions worth at least $9 for every $10 they divert to K-12 scholarship organizations to provide private/religious school vouchers to students. Every dollar that pays for a student’s voucher leaves a gap in the state budget that individual and family taxpayers are left to fill.
Every school district and taxpayer will subsidize the private education of students who live primarily in urban and wealthy suburban areas. We will all receive fewer services in our communities and have have less funding available for our public schools as a result of this lost revenue.
Please write a letter to your state senator now.
Here is a link you can share with your network on Facebook.
Another expansion of EITC/OSTC tax credits for K-12 vouchers is unconscionable in a state that underfunds public schools so much that rich districts with their own resources have a third more funding per student than poor. It is a further departure from the basic principles of equal educational opportunity and quality public education for all – and a further consolidation of “separate but unequal” schooling using taxpayer dollars.
If lawmakers have an extra $100 million to invest in education, it should be invested in our PUBLIC schools, not in tuition subsidies for private/religious schools.
Thank you for your support of public education.
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