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Pennsylvania’s Battle for School Choice

By: Tabitha Hale (Diary)  |  May 18th, 2011 at 10:04 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

A long time proponent of school choice legislation across the country, FreedomWorks* has joined a large coalition of school choice advocates in Pennsylvania to push back against the teachers unions on the state’s first viable school choice legislation. Championed by Senator Tony Williams (D) and Senator Jeff Piccola (R), the bipartisan bill will start push for school choice legislation across the country, as well as help Pennsylvania parents and students regain control of their child’s education.

Here’s a quick run down on  the bill:

  • PA is currently spending over $14k per pupil. The vouchers would provide low-income students with an $8,498 voucher, which covers tuition at most private schools. It’s a savings for the taxpayers.
  • It doesn’t provide contingencies for private schools. They’re not forced to accept a certain number of recipients or adopt curriculum requirements.

This bill could be a reality in Pennsylvania. As the United States falls further behind globally in education rankings, school choice is becoming a larger issue across the country. Really, it’s surprising it has taken this long. The idea that parents should be able to give their children an opportunity to leave a failing school should be a no brainer.

There are a few Republicans that are still working on the side of the teachers unions to push back on SB1. They’re feeling the pressure, and are starting to panic. Today, FreedomWorks received a call from Senator Kim Ward, who heard a podcast I did with my colleague yesterday and was upset that she had been called out by name. “How dare you!” she said. “I’m not a liberal Republican!” she repeated 5 times. “I worked with George Bush!” As if that’s a qualifier.

In typical politician fashion, she tried to turn the conversation on my colleague, accusing him of “bullying women.”

This has nothing to do with bullying women, Senator Ward. This has to do with doing the right thing and giving families a choice in their education. You can either be on the side of kids or the side of the teachers unions.

Senator Kim Ward is one of two critical holdouts on the passage of this bill, the other being House Majority Leader Mike Turzai. This is a chance to move the ball forward for education in our country. If you’d like to help keep the pressure on, you can reach their offices at the numbers below.

Senator Kim L. Ward (R-39) (717) 787-6063

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai: (412) 369-2230

* For those who don’t know, I’m the New Media Director at FreedomWorks, and have been a part of this fight.

COMMENTS

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  • gawken

    Just curious…

    • http://tabithahale.com Tabitha Hale

      He’s been silent. Toomey supports it, however.

  • jackhammer

    If they are expect the sob-stories,a dn cancelling football and drama departments…

    Traditional private schools aren’t that dumb, they keep the sports and extra-curriculars going because they know that is what builds a feeling of belonging,a nd a strong alumni network, and parental giving…but public schools rarely have a long term view of things.

  • asleep06

    I’ve been wanting Virginia to adopt a voucher system as well, but it doesn’t seem to be on the radar despite my emails to my representatives.

    • gpclaw

      I think Governors are sitting back to see the battle plays out in some of the other states. Based on the results in Indiana, and not Pennsylvania, I won’t be surprised to see vouchers, right to work, and possibly Arizona style immigration enforcement, as the next wave of conservative issues at the state level.

      It’s refreshing to see the states taking the lead with these ideas.

  • gpclaw

    the bipartisan bill will start the push for school choice legislation across the country

    This is just like the reform bill that passed in Indiana.

    As many have said, tax credits would be the preferred option. Once voucher programs take hold, and proves to the rest of the country that school choice is not the path to Somalia, then tax credits should be the next logical step.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Because I’m also opposed to vouchers. Private schools that accept them will be in for a rude awakening. Even if it starts out without requirements, they’ll eventually come. Private religious schools should be extremely cautious here.

    I personally prefer a combination of public school choice, charter schools, and tax credits for those that want to homeschool or send their kids to private school.

  • wennejunk

    In the meantime, however, thousands of students will (finally) begin to receive an education that is effective and the tide will turn for a while.

    Once the unions and libs get their meathooks into the voucher program and start to limit its effectiveness, that will begin to change.

    By that time, though, parents will be hooked on a good thing and can help provide the muscle to make even more effective changes.

    We have to break the logjam first and get the trend moving in a better direction.

  • streiff

    how charter schools or “public school choice” work without vouchers or direct state payments?

  • jackhammer

    and I grew up in Canada where Catholic schools get a grant per student of around 1/3 of the public school per child. We had some requirements for use of textbooks an material that had to be covered, but in all standardized tests the catholic schools came out significantly better. Some could be attributed to student selection, but for the msot part it was just more dedicated non union teachers.

  • LibertarianHawk

    But, then, the private schools have the choice whether to accept them or not. So long as they aren’t forced to accept them (and they aren’t), then I don’t see the problem here….or, at least, don’t see why you’d oppose them.

    The key concept is choice: the choice of students and parents to go somewhere other than their assigned public school….and the choice of private schools to accept or reject the vouchers as they see fit.

    You would be opposed to them even having that choice, because of the strings attached. And I don’t understand that….denying somebody else the choice to do or not do something because *you* don’t like the conditions.

    Shouldn’t that be up to them to decide?

  • Spiral

    The premise of your argument is wrong.

    You say that if a private school participates in a voucher program, the government will end up regulating the private school.

    This premise of that statement is that private actors are untouched by government regulation as long as they do not receive any government subsidies.

    But this is totally incorrect. Many businesses, large and small, pay lots of taxes, receive no subsidies from government, yet they still must comply with a huge number of government regulations.

    If I open up a fast food chain that sells hamburgers and french fries, I have to comply with the federal minimum wage law even if I do not accept a penny of government subsidy.

    So, to say, “We shouldn’t implement a voucher program because, if we do, the government will end up controlling private schools,” is faulty logic. The government could decide to regulate or criminalize private schools based on the idea that all children should have “equal” educations. Bad idea? Sure. But the government implements lots of bad ideas.

    You are saying that as long as private schools don’t take government money, the government will leave them alone and that is absolutely wrong. The Teachers’ Unions would love to force everyone into the public school monopoly and would do so if the political climate was right.

    Opposing vouchers simply plays right into the hands of the Teachers’ Unions.

    So, yes. You probably are a liberal Republican.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister
  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    It reduces the possibility for the government to control the use of those dollars.

    If you want to add tax credits for people that don’t want to use vouchers, then that’s fine with me, but I don’t see a lot of difference in the long run between the current system and one with vouchers added.

  • asleep06

    The point is that if you’re worried about having to obey State requirements, favoring charter schools and public school choice does not solve your problem.

    In fact, private schools and homeschooling already fall under State requirements and curriculum standards (Virginia), but I’m sure this is true for most states). They just don’t get money for submitting to those requirements. And they should.

  • asleep06

    Vouchers will allow parents to use their tax money for private schools. The current system does not, instead requiring parents to pay additional money out of pocket while still taking their tax money to pay for public schools they don’t use. That’s a big difference. Tax credits may also work, but vouchers are fine.

    As for worries about strings being attached to funding, private schools and homeschooling are already regulated by the state governments, e.g. Virginia, and they would continue to be regulated under a tax credit system or a voucher system. So that is not an issue.

  • LibertarianHawk

    The state could just as easily attach these conditions to tax credits as to vouchers.

    Trust me, I understand what you’re saying. And I sympathize with it. In fact, I fully expect Democrats in these states, whenever they’re so empowered, to attach poison pills to the vouchers as a means of effectively killing them without officially repealing them. They are die-hard protectors of the public education establishment and it’s a big, big money co-dependency.

    But, ultimately, I don’t think it’s a reason to oppose the concept of school vouchers itself. If and when these attached strings become a problem, we fight them.

    But private schools still have every right to refuse the vouchers, if the strings are something they can’t bear.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Because I agree the democrats will make it hard no matter which way you go.

    School choice & charter schools have improved things here. Douglas County just implemented a voucher program, we’ll have to wait to see how it goes, but I do expect improvement.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    I was referring to the off-curriculum stuff like forcing religious schools to teach diversity, etc. if they take the vouchers. I supposed it could also be done with tax credits by only allowing them for approved schools.

    Any way you slice it, the democrats have been successfully indoctrinating kids for decades, and won’t give that up without a huge fight. Same for the teachers unions that want to keep their unsustainable salaries and benefits.

    Democrats opposed to choice……you don’t hear that every day.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Good or not.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    There’s regulation, then there’s regulation.

    I’m not going to waste any electrons trying to explain it to you though.