State tuition voucher proposal on path fraught with questions
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At first blush, a state school tuition voucher proposal, expected to be the first bill proposed this year in the state Senate, might seem like deja vu.
But the proposal for "opportunity scholarships," as advocates of tuition vouchers call them, has some differences from those that cropped up repeatedly during the Ridge administration in the 1990s.
And times have changed significantly.
In the early 1990s, there were no charter schools -- public schools of choice -- in Pennsylvania, but that changed when a state law took effect in 1997.
Now there are more than 160 charter schools, including cyber charter schools, statewide.
Chartered by school districts and run by separate boards, charter schools are open to any resident of Pennsylvania, with a lottery if too many sign up. Students don't pay tuition; the home school district pays a fee set by the state.
A tax credit for businesses contributing to scholarship funds largely for nonpublic school students also didn't exist in the 1990s. The Educational Improvement Tax Credit started in 2001.
The voucher proposal, announced last week by state Sens. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, and Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, would allow low-income students from "persistently poorly performing" public schools to switch to other public or private schools -- and receive taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay their tuition. Proposals in the 1990s had broader reach.
The voucher proposal specifically calls for increasing the Educational Improvement Tax Credit from the $75 million expected to be in effect in 2011-12 to $100 million.
The idea of school choice has captured the national spotlight.
That attention includes the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which allows children in certain poorly performing public schools to transfer to another public school. Also, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been strongly encouraging states to become more hospitable to charter schools.
"The idea of options being available to kids is not only less radical, but it is more of a reality today than it was 15 years ago," said Ron Cowell, a former state legislator who is president of the Education Policy and Leadership Center, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit organization.
First Published January 24, 2011 12:00 am
