PA: A Voucher Bill, Again

Voucherphiles in Pennsylvania has tried to push vouchers again and again and again and again and again and again. They've been particularly encouraged by our Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, who is supportive of vouchers for some reason. Last year they cobbled together a new version of the same old same old in hopes that it would meet his requirements, and instead he left them at the altar.

But Pennsylvania, particularly under a Democrat, would be such a policy win for voucher fans that they are unlikely to give up, and so here we are, once again contemplating this year's version of Lifeline Scholarships, aka more Pennsylvania school vouchers. 

Let's take a peek at SB 795 and see what features are included in this pass. 

Managed by the State Treasury, with an option to hire a third party to administer the program. So this voucher program would not be touched in any way by the education department.

Eligibility? No limits on income for the family of the student. Students are eligible if they are within the attendance boundary of a low-achieving school; that would also mean that students who are already attending a private school could grab one of these vouchers. Also, Pennsylvania defines a "low-achieving school" as one in the bottom 15% of Big Standardized Test scores, which means no matter how well the state does, somebody is always in the bottom 15%.

Funding? Shapiro has explained that he won't support a voucher program that takes money from the public school pile. So this bill proposes that the funding will come from... somewhere. Seriously. Here's all the funding language in the bill (under 1708-E):

(a) Establishment.--The Lifeline Scholarship Fund is established in the State Treasury. All interest and earnings received from investment or deposit of the money in the fund shall be paid into the fund and used for the purposes authorized by this article. Any unexpended money and interest or earnings on the money in the fund may not be transferred or revert to the General Fund but shall remain in the fund. 

(b) Funding.--The fund shall consist of money that is appropriated, given, granted or donated by the Commonwealth or any other government or private agency or person for the purpose established under this article. 

(c) Continuing appropriation.--The money in the fund is appropriated on a continuing basis to the State Treasury for the purpose of administering this article.

So, funding from somewhere. A neat trick, given the GOP is currently set on cutting state revenue by billions via a tax cut.

Costs? Sure better figure out where that funding is coming from, because this will get pricey fast. K-8 vouchers are $5K. Grade 9-12 is $10K. Special ed is $15K. That will be indexed to school spending increases, so it will be going up every year. 

Voucher schools are forbidden to charge extra to voucher parents or provide kickbacks to parents. That does not address the issue of private schools hiking their tuition to take advantage of that free state money, even as they encourage all their families to go get a voucher.

Accountability? A standard feature of voucher law these days is to deliberately avoid accountability. We already that Pennsylvania's current voucher system funds an astonishing amount of religious indoctrination and discrimination. Like most voucher bills, this one includes language that the private school remains "autonomous" and the state may not regulate them in any way. 

The Auditor General may (not "shall") conduct random audits of lifeline scholarship accounts. Nonpublic schools that want to receive voucher dollars need simply indicate so to the state; there are no checks, requirements, screenings, minimum competencies, or academic requirements that they need to meet. Just criminal background checks on employees, and be nonprofit. 

The Lifeline vouchers are at least restricted to tuition, school-related fees, and special ed services fees, and not trampolines and Playstation consoles.

Bottom line? This newest iteration is not the worst voucher program anyone ever proposed. It's just regular old bad. Financial drain from some un-named source in order to have taxpayers fund more discriminatory, unaccountable and unsuccessful schooling. Plus subsidies for families that are already putting their children in private school. Plus whatever more junk will be foisted on the state further down the road, because at this point we well know that the first voucher bill is always just a foot in the door, with the rest of the leg soon to follow.

This is not a good bill. It needs to die, and it would be lovely if Shapiro would help kill it instead of nursing whatever voucher brainworm is chewing away at him.