Pa. Senate GOP wants to set aside $8,000 tax credits for families who homeschool or send their kids to private school

HARRISBURG — Senate Republicans have refocused their efforts to alter Pennsylvania’s education landscape on a sweeping new proposal that would allow families to use tax dollars to subsidize the cost of private school and home schooling in the state.

Unlike a prior proposal to provide vouchers to poor students in communities with low-achieving public schools, the bill, sponsored by Sen. Judy Ward (R., Blair), would allow all families that homeschool or send their child to private school — regardless of their income — to receive an $8,000 tax credit back to their bank accounts to cover some school-related expenses.

A spokesperson for Gov. Josh Shapiro said he opposes it, and it is certain to face resistance in the state House, where Democrats hold a narrow majority.

The bill, which was fast-tracked in a Senate committee in the midst of budget season, comes as a sign that lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement on how to change Pennsylvania’s education system — even after weeks of closed-door negotiations for the next fiscal year.

It quickly drew opposition from critics, who noted it could cost more than $2 billion per year as currently written — a figure that would grow if more families enrolled in private schools in the future.

“We’ve just gotten a signal of what the end of the road is: the destruction of public schools,” said Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center. He called the expedited bill the “Episcopal Academy Assistance Act,” highlighting the Newtown Square private school where high school tuition tops $43,000 as one of the expensive schools that could benefit from such a proposal.

A spokesperson for Senate Republicans said in a statement that the “concept has significant interest within our caucus” and “empowering parents to have educational opportunities for their children remains a key area of focus for our caucus.” The bill passed the Senate Finance Committee along party lines on Wednesday.

At the committee meeting Wednesday, Ward said the total cost was unlikely to top $2 billion like public education advocates estimate, because similar programs are often underutilized and lawmakers would likely cap it in the future. She noted a similar effort in Oklahoma, where the state only spent about half of the $150 million it earmarked for private school tax credits. She also likened the program to the childcare tax credit Pennsylvania passed last year, which Democrats championed. The Blair County Republican is also a proponent of vouchers, as the prime sponsor on legislation to create such a program.

Advocates across Pennsylvania — and even Jay-Z — had been prepared for a tough budget fight over whether the state should create a private-school voucher program to send tax dollars to low-income families in poor-performing schools. But so far, top legislative leaders have mostly sidestepped the issue in budget negotiations, focused at this point on implementing a new school funding system, as instructed by a state appellate court. The state budget for the next fiscal year was due Sunday and there has been little indication that lawmakers are close to reaching a final agreement.

Under the new proposal, families could use the $8,000 credit toward tuition, tutoring, software, after-school programs or textbooks. Unlike proposed school voucher programs, students who currently attend a public school would not be eligible.

Sen. Lindsey Williams (D., Allegheny) said the fact that the fast-tracked bill — introduced last week and already getting a committee vote Wednesday — has no income limits shows Senate Republicans “telling on themselves.”

“They’ve literally just abandoned all pretense that this is for low-income families and struggling students,” Williams added. “This is for wealthy families to get a tax break.”

Public education advocacy groups were also quick to oppose the legislation, arguing that the state needs to meet its constitutional duty to equitably and adequately fund public schools — following a Commonwealth Court ruling last year that Pennsylvania has been depriving poorer school communities of needed resources — before creating a new tax credit program.

Urevick-Ackelsberg, whose group brought the successful school funding lawsuit, said the proposal demonstrated that Pennsylvania could afford a plan to increase K-12 education funding by $5.1 billion, phased in over seven years.

“I am thankful that they are again making clear that complying with the constitution, and funding public schools is well within our grasp,” he said.

Despite its lack of focus on students from poor families in low-performing schools, several Republican members claimed it would still help them.

“Today we’re talking about educational opportunities for all children,” said Sen. Scott Hutchinson (R., Butler), who chairs the committee. “This will help less fortunate families more than anyone else.”