Pennsylvania school voucher program about to heat up

A coalition of Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans wants Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to follow through with the support he expressed for school choice when he was running for governor last year.

It is a support that former governor Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, dismissed, and it is Shapiro’s first test as the state’s chief executive.

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At the center of debate are school vouchers called ‘lifeline scholarships’ that give taxpayer dollars to families for private school tuition or associated costs to attend a different public school system.

This week, ahead of his confirmation hearing, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of education, Khalid Mumin, noted that Shapiro “favors adding choices for parents” in a letter, adding “funding lifeline scholarships, as long as those choices do not impact school district funding.”

Almost instantly, the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the most powerful teachers union in the state, reacted, with a statement saying the association was “incredibly disappointed” at the suggestion that Shapiro would support a school voucher bill and was joined by multiple unions across the state in “in complete opposition” to the legislation.

The back and forth between advocates and the unions comes as Pennsylvania’s June budget deadline looms at the end of the month, and comes several months after a Commonwealth Court ruling found Pennsylvania’s school funding system unfair and said it must be revamped.

School choice advocates in the state say the issue of a voucher system should transcend politics. Last year the lifeline scholarships bill was passed by the state House. It did not, however, clear the state Senate.

The lifeline scholarships allow students to leave low-performing, unsafe schools and transfer to a public or private school by funneling one-third of individual student funding into an account (approximately $7,000 per student) to cover tuition at a private school. The other two-thirds of those monies go to their home school district.

One Way Out is a recently formed group made up of a handful of groups all over the political spectrum that includes Commonwealth Action, the Latino Action Group, the Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, Independence Mission Schools, the Foundation for Jewish Day Schools of Greater Philadelphia, Excellent Schools PA, and the Pennsylvania Education Partnership. They have joined forces to run ads in support of the lifeline scholarships.

The ads argue students all over Pennsylvania are trapped in underperforming schools and urge people to reach out to their lawmakers and note their support for lifeline scholarships; they will run until the rest of June.

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Shapiro, a Montgomery County native, has emphasized repeatedly that he’s open to the concept of the lifeline scholarships as long as it doesn’t take a dime out of the public school systems.

When asked on Friday by Fox News anchor Dana Perino about his position on a school voucher system, Shapiro said, “I believe every child of God deserves a shot here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”