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Gov. Josh Shapiro has not indicated whether Pennsylvania will opt into a new federal tax credit program that supporters say would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarships, mostly for private school tuition.
A bipartisan group of Senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation to make the decision for Shapiro and have the state join the Educational Freedom Tax Credit program.
The measure would have to also clear the Democrat-controlled House, and even then, Shapiro could veto the legislation if he decides to do so.
Three other states -- Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina -- have already opted into the program over their Democratic governors' objections after Republican lawmakers overrode vetoes. Republicans hold the majority in the Pennsylvania Senate but would need seven Democrats to join them to have the supermajority needed to override a veto by Shapiro.
So, while the bill's path forward is uncertain, the senators appear to be signaling their intent to make the issue a priority in the fall session. The Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol on Sept. 9 and has 12 voting days planned before the midterm elections in November.
Only one Democrat, long-time school choice champion Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, has publicly expressed support for opting into the federal school choice tax credit.
The program allows taxpayers to get up to $1,700 in credits offsetting the cost of donations to scholarship funds. Families with income up to 300% of the median income would be eligible for scholarships. If Pennsylvania does not opt into the program, taxpayers in the state will still be able to donate to scholarship organizations and take the tax credit, but the scholarships their donations fund will be awarded to students in other states, according to a statement released by Senate President Pro Tem Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, and the other five lawmakers who signed on as cosponsors of the bill.
Families with children in public schools would be able to use the funding to pay for tutoring services to help students catch up if they have fallen behind academically.
Critics say that while the scholarships may be technically available for public school students, most of the funding will likely go to pay for private school tuition. Public schools do not have affiliated scholarship organizations and established donor lists, like private schools typically do, Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of PA, said in a press call with reporters on Monday.
There are no requirements in the federal guidance that scholarship organizations spell out how they are awarding scholarships or how they determine how much aid each student receives. There are also no specific limits on how much a scholarship organization can give to any individual student.
Critics have long argued that school choice programs operate with little transparency or accountability and the Education Freedom Tax Credit is no different, Spicka said.
The scholarship organizations "are charged with auditing and fraud detection of their own operations," Spicka said. "So, it's really, truly, having a fox guard the henhouse."