The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania missed its June 30, 2023 deadline to pass the state budget and a major bargaining chip today is the proposed $100,000,000 Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (or PASS) scholarship program (HB 479). The proposal would give $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 state-funded vouchers to eligible students to use for tuition and fees at private schools.
This investment would be in addition to the $465,000,000 already designated through Pennsylvania’s school choice subsidy programs the Educational Improvement (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC).
The new PASS program is based largely on Sen. Judy Ward (R)’s proposed Lifeline Scholarships (SB 795) and proponents claim the purpose is to enable low-income students to escape low-performing public schools. Proponents similarly claimed 15,000 students would be “rescued” from public schools when Pennsylvania spent $50,000,000 to launch the Opportunity Scholarship program in 2012-2013. In fact, actual enrollment in PA private schools decreased from 2011-12 to 2013-24 as did private school enrollment as a percent of overall enrollment. Evidence does not exist to show that PA Opportunity Scholarships serve to incentivize parental choice to enroll students in private school rather than public school.
While there is no guarantee that investing $100,000,000 in the PASS program would shift enrollment from low-performing public schools to private schools, there is also no recourse for tax payers. The legislation establishes this expenditure outside of the normal budget process and embeds increases that would be tied to other spending. The only way to reduce the amount spent on PASS is legislative action. A reduction is highly unlikely. Further, the PASS program (like the EITC and OSTC) is designed to ensure that most of the funds will go to families already choosing and paying for private school. This is through preferential access in year one for students already enrolled in private school, a first come first served system to access the funds, giving priority to participating students over new applicants regardless of need, and no requirement that private school seek new applicants from low-performing public schools.
There are other problems with the current legislation. In January 2022, the Independent Fiscal Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania released its review of the PA’s existing school choice subsidy program and called on legislators to improve current and future legislation with specific recommendations. Based in part on that report, earlier this year I outlined steps the Governor could take to ensure new legislation would actually help students access high quality education. None of these recommended changes is included in Sen. Ward’s proposal or in HB 479.
Proponents cite Governor Shapiro’s statement that “... every child of God deserves a shot here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,”... “One of the best ways we can guarantee their success is making sure every child has a quality education.” (Shapiro in an interview with Fox News in June as cited by O’Neal, 2023). Most constituents agree that every child deserves a quality education. This legislation does nothing to ensure that funds awarded through PASS would improve education.
Opponents point out that existing choice subsidy programs in PA do not collect data on student performance in private schools, private school costs, individual scholarship amounts for the EITC, or other information that would help families (and communities and even legislators) to know whether the private school they enroll in actually helps students perform better than the public school in their neighborhood. In fact, existing law forbids the collection of performance data from private schools receiving choice subsidies despite the fact that they are receiving taxpayer dollars or tax credits. This is contrary to responsible public policy and good government practice. Public investments should be able to be tracked and the impact measured for public accountability and transparency.
The PASS and Lifeline Scholarships would saddle low performing public schools with the responsibility and cost of notifying families in their district of the existence of the scholarships, but would do nothing to require private schools in the same catchment areas or nearby to notify families how to enroll or use the scholarship. Further, the proposals give a short window during which families can apply for the scholarships in the first year, thereby giving preference to the families already enrolled in the private schools without relying on the scholarships. From that point forward, students who received scholarship funds the first year would have priority over new applicants. This system that is biased in favor of families who can afford private schools without vouchers has been used by the existing EITC program and creates barriers to access for the very students it purports to help.
PA legislators can look to other states with education vouchers to see models, and problems, with implementation. For example, tuition at St. Paul Catholic School in St. Petersburg, FL increased after vouchers were passed, so vouchers increased income for the school but did nothing to reduce the cost of enrollment for students (Solochek, 2023). The existing proposals would not prevent this same practice in PA.
Essentially, the PASS proposal creates a public funding stream for private schools that is separate from the budget process, has no academic accountability, has no transparency for the public to trace the funds, and no regulations that prohibit private schools that receive the funds from increasing tuition. There are 100,000,000+ reasons to contact your PA legislators and governor today! Don't "PASS".
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
References:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, (2022). Pennsylvania Educational Tax Credits, An Evaluation of Program Performance. Harrisburg, PA Retrieved from http://www.ifo.state.pa.us/releases/518/Educational-Tax-Credits/
O’Neal, S. (2023, June 29). What are Pa.'s lifeline scholarships? School choice, vouchers, and the budget debate, explained. Spotlight, PA. https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2023/06/pa-school-choice-voucher-budget-explain-history-tax-credit/
PA House Bill 479. General Assembly 2023-2024. Printer’s number 1815. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2023&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=0479&pn=1815
PA Senate Bill 795. General Assembly 2023-2024. Printer’s number 902. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2023&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0795&pn=0902
Solochek, J.S. (2023, May 30). Florida’s new voucher law allows private schools to boost revenue. Tampa Bay Times. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/05/30/floridas-new-voucher-law-allows-private-schools-boost-revenue/