Public schools in battle to stop voucher bill

The pressure put forth by Pennsylvania public schools may not have eliminated a voucher proposal that threatens school funding, but they have won a temporary reprieve.

A vote scheduled last Tuesday to move Senate Bill 2 out of the Education Committee was postponed until May. The bill has increasingly come under fire from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association — opposition that has been supported in the form of a resolution adopted by dozens of school boards in Berks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

The bill, proposed last summer by Harrisburg-area state Sen. John Di Santo, R-15th Dist., proposed “Education Savings Accounts,” which parents could use to pay education expenses.

Parents whose children attend what the bill characterizes as “low-performing schools” could access those accounts to pay for “qualified” education expenses. The money would be the equivalent of the average Pennsylvania subsidy per student — between $5,000 and $6,000 — and that amount would be deducted from the state subsidy provided to the district for that student.

The bill has been criticized not only for the money it takes from public school subsidies, but also because it could be used to pay tuition to private schools, parochial schools or even for extra tutoring, or college, without consideration of family income.

The PSBA resolution stated, in part, “not only would school districts’ state aid be sent to unaccountable private schools, but such money could also be diverted to higher education, tutoring services and other ‘qualified education expenses,’ not even ensuring students receive full-time educational instruction.”

ESAs could be used to benefit students “never having attended the target school” and could be provided to “benefit families regardless of income or need, including students already enrolled in private schools.”

The private and parochial schools benefiting from the measure are not held to the “strict accountability standards that measure student achievement and academic progress” to which public schools are held, the resolution noted.

“Senate Bill 2 has been estimated to siphon more than $500 million dollars from the most under-resourced schools that desperately need the funding,” PSBA wrote in a press release in March.

School boards which quickly came on board adopting the resolution included Pottstown, Methacton, Cheltenham and Upper Moreland in Montgomery County; Phoenixville, Tredyffrin/Easttown and Avon Grove in Chester County; Garnett Valley, Southeast Delco, Haverford and Upper Darby in Delaware County; and Exeter and Schuylkill Valley in Berks County. Many others adopted the PSBA language or wrote their own in recent weeks.

Several local superintendents were adamant about the danger SB2 creates for local schools.

Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez called the bill “a blatant attempt to defund public schools by shifting tax dollars to nonregulated private schools.”

Boyertown Area School District Acting Superintendent David Krem, who previously was Pottstown schools superintendent, said, “I take umbrage at the idea of urban schools failing their students; those kids have to work harder, with disadvantages they have . ... Urban schools are doing what they can do, considering that they are, excuse the expression, being raped and pillaged every day.”

While school vouchers in concept seem to have potential to improve public schools through a competitive environment, the reality is proposals like SB2 undermine education for Pennsylvania children.

Public schools suffer from a lack of state support, which in turn heightens the tax burden on property owners, many of whom are on fixed incomes. Siphoning off even more subsidy so that families who choose private schools can get their own subsidy is a plan that serves a minority of Pennsylvanians.

In turn, SB2 benefits the operators of private and charter schools and hurts public schools, which are the bedrock of local communities.

School boards throughout Pennsylvania made it loud and clear they don’t want the Senate to steal their lunch.

We join with those schools in urging state lawmakers to drop SB2 in favor of improving support of education for all children of the commonwealth.

The state Constitution demands as much.