Tuition vouchers get push
Share with others:
Buoyed by what they see as their best opportunity in a decade, education activists are spending millions of dollars and countless hours trying to persuade or pressure Pennsylvania lawmakers to approve school tuition vouchers.
From Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to Montgomery County to West Philadelphia, the money is paying for lobbyists, renting rally buses, printing pamphlets, even buying bright red backpacks for kids.
It has flowed -- sometimes in five- or six-figure checks -- to legislators' campaign coffers. And it has funded an unusual, if not unprecedented, wave of attack ads, mailers and websites against lawmakers who are undecided or oppose vouchers.
The effort reflects hopes that stretch beyond Pennsylvania. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has made vouchers part of his education budget proposal now pending before legislators in Trenton.
Last year's elections gave tuition-voucher proponents the upper hand in many state capitals, including Harrisburg. Vouchers are part of a school reform bill signed Thursday by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Officials in Florida, Ohio and Louisiana are weighing bills to create or expand vouchers.
"This is a hugely important year for the movement," said Andrew Campanella, a spokesman for the Washington-based American Federation for Children, which gave $1.2 million last fall to a political action group funding Pennsylvania candidates. He said the state "is certainly one of the top battlegrounds."
On Monday, Gov. Tom Corbett is to deliver a keynote speech at the federation's national summit in Washington. Mr. Christie was a featured speaker at the event last year.
The Pennsylvania proposal, introduced as Senate Bill 1, would give public school students thousands of dollars for private tuition. The subsidy, with a price tag of at least $500 million, was originally limited to poor students in underperforming schools but has been expanded to some middle-income students.
The amount of each "opportunity scholarship" varies among districts depending on enrollment and other factors. Philadelphia students, for instance, could be eligible for about $7,500 a year.
First Published May 8, 2011 12:04 am
