Before Considering New School Vouchers, Josh Shapiro Should find Answers to Questions About The Old Ones
At Forbes, a look at Pennsylvania’s tax credit scholarship program and the many unanswered questions that come with it.
While Governor-elect Josh Shapiro considers opening up more school vouchers in Pennsylvania, unanswered questions remain about the voucher program that Pennsylvania already has.
Pennsylvania has a pair of tax credit scholarship programs, Educational Improvement Tax Credits (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credits (OSTC). These programs allow contributors to pay money into scholarship programs for private and religious schools and credit those contributions against their state tax bill.
The program has been in place for over twenty years; more than $2 billion has been spent on private school tuition scholarships, leaving a hefty hole in state revenues.
But that $2 billion has disappeared into a black box, a program that has little transparency or accountability. A report from Education Voters of Pennsylvania lays out the questions that have gone unanswered.
Scholarship organizations number in the hundreds in Pennsylvania, many associated with just one school. They are allowed to keep 20% of the funds donated for scholarships, a generous sum compared to most other states with similar programs. In those states, the cut is between 5% and 10%; Florida allows only 3%. There are no regulations or reporting requirements for these organizations regarding what they do what that 20% cut.