HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania lawmakers have missed their June 30 deadline to agree on a state budget. The sticking point: education, and how to fund it.

This latest stage of the debate comes on the heels of a landmark Commonwealth Court decision that found that Pennsylvania’s public school funding system is unconstitutionally unfair. 

The plaintiffs in that case, made up of school districts, parents and advocates, argued that the state needs an investment of more than $4 billion over time.

However, the Senate’s proposal would only increase education spending by about five percent over last year’s budget—far less than what Gov. Josh Shapiro or Democratic lawmakers had in mind.

Most Republicans argue that simply pouring more money into public schooling won’t create better outcomes for students. They prefer an approach known as “school choice,” in which the state allocates taxpayer dollars to provide parents and students with alternatives to their local, public, school district.

Who supports what?

In short, House Republicans want a budget that includes roughly $100 million for a program that would provide eligible students with scholarships—or vouchers—to help pay for the cost of attending non-public schools, or for special education needs. For most House Democrats, any hint of a voucher program is a dealbreaker, because they maintain it would only hurt the state’s already broken public education system.

“I’ll never vote for a voucher,” northeast PA Rep. Maureen Madden, a Democrat, said.

The newly elected Democratic governor, Shapiro, has not joined his fellow party members in their staunch opposition. In fact, his office has reportedly worked closely with state Republicans to iron out a voucher program that he hoped would satisfy both parties.

Shapiro said throughout his election campaign, and maintains now, that he supports vouchers as long as “they don’t take a dollar out of public schools.”

Manuel Bonder, one of the governor’s spokespeople, expanded on his stance.

“[The governor] is open to this concept, so long as it is part of a full budget agreement that delivers historic investments in public education, as well as funding for key priorities like student mental health and special education, universal free breakfast for every student, and sustained funding for necessary and urgent environmental repairs in Pennsylvania schools.”

Education advocates in PA, however, have urged the governor to reconsider his position. Teachers’ unions are also outspoken opponents of vouchers.

“Tuition vouchers, in whatever form they may take, siphon precious taxpayer dollars from the public schools that serve 1.7 million Pennsylvania students and give them to private and religious schools,” said Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “In fact, there is absolutely no way to create a tuition voucher program that doesn’t take money from public schools.”

Don’t vouchers already exist in PA?

There are two Pennsylvania programs that currently provide tax money to private schools: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC). The two programs operate similarly, but the OSTC is specifically geared toward students from low-income neighborhoods.

The programs allow private businesses to receive tax credits equalling 75 percent of what they contribute to scholarship organizations (SOs)—up to $750,000 in credit per taxable year. Each year, these programs contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to SOs, which in turn award tuition vouchers to families whose children attend private and religious schools. 

Supporters of these two programs are generally Republicans, who usually push to expand them during budget negotiations. Education advocates, however, generally criticize both, citing research that has found that the programs lack both educational and financial accountability.

According to a 2017 report by the Keystone Research Center and PA Budget & Policy Center, a lack of regulatory oversight means that many of these programs cater exclusively to students in high-income areas, though purported as an effort to help less fortunate school kids. The report also said that the legislation creating these programs doesn’t require schools that receive scholarships to report on students’ progress; in fact, the Department of Community and Economic Development is prohibited from asking for information on the achievements of voucher students.

What does the latest voucher program look like?

The most recent incarnation of the proposed voucher program, known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) scholarship program, is the result of Republicans working closely with the Shapiro administration.

The proposal—which passed the Republican-majority PA Senate last week—would make vouchers available to students in the state’s lowest-performing school districts.

It would provide $2,500 in annual grants for students in half-day kindergarten, $5,000 for students attending full-day kindergarten through eighth grade, and $10,000 for high school students. Students who require special education services would qualify for up to $15,000 annually.

Only students whose families’ income totaled less than 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines would be able to participate.

As proposed, Pennsylvania’s income tax revenue would fund the program.

New fiscal year begins sans budget

The June 30 deadline has come and gone, and the new fiscal year has begun without a budget agreement in Harrisburg.

At press time, it’s unclear when Democrats and Republicans will be able to hammer out a mutually agreed-upon budget, or whether or not that budget will fund a voucher program or not.

The governor is calling on both sides of the aisle to compromise. In the meantime, state departments and institutions must wait and see if a new budget will arrive before last year’s coffers run empty.