Commonwealth Foundation senior education policy analyst Rachel Langan argues that Pennsylvania’s tax-credit scholarship programs — the Educational Improvement Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit — primarily serve low- and middle-income families, not the wealthy, citing foundation research showing average scholarship recipient household income between $56,249 and $78,081, well below the state’s $100,557 median family income.
Langan contends the programs — which together awarded more than 101,000 scholarships statewide last year — are among the commonwealth’s most powerful equity tools, giving working families access to private school options otherwise available only to those who can afford tuition or a home in a high-performing district. She profiles Keystone Christian Academy in York, where administrators say roughly 90% of students attend on scholarship, in a district where all eight traditional public schools appear on Pennsylvania’s low-achieving schools list.
Langan also calls on Gov. Josh Shapiro to opt into the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit created under HR 1, citing Education Reform Now (ERN) estimates that it could bring Pennsylvania between $32 million and $967 million depending on participation — and criticizes his budget proposal for flat-funding the existing state programs while leaving nearly 70,000 applicants on waiting lists.
Read the full story here: LancasterOnline
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