Education Secretary: Testing Should Be Required of Voucher Students

By Eric Boehm | PA Independent

The Corbett administration wants potential voucher students to be held accountable for their academic performance by requiring standardized testing. 

Addressing the House Education Committee on Aug. 3, state Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis said the administration supports phasing in a voucher program by focusing on the 144 schools in 23 school districts which the state Education Department has labeled as “failing.” Voucher students who leave those schools to attend a private school still should be tested, he said. 

“It is imperative that there is accountability for commonwealth funds being spent through a choice program,” Tomalis said. “We support accountability by requiring students participating in this program to take an assessment to measure academic achievement.” 

The voucher amount would equal the state-level, per-pupil spending in the student’s resident school district, not local and federal funds, Tomalis said.

Private schools accepting voucher students would choose from a list of state-approved national standardized tests, Tomalis said. 

State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, the highest ranking Democrat on the committee, said accountability and transparency are critical to any voucher bill moving forward. 

“I don’t understand how you can create programs with no level of accountability?” Roebuck said. “If it’s working, fine, but don’t you want to know how it is working and how well it is working?” 

A separate voucher proposal in the state Senate also requires standardized testing for voucher students. Results for individual students would be sent to the parents, and aggregate results would be posted for the public on the school’s website. 

Dave Transue, chief of staff for state Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, the sponsor of the Senate voucher proposal, said parents should determine whether the school is meeting the student’s needs, not the state Education Department. 

Teachers’ unions oppose the voucher proposals, because they would result in fewer funds for public school districts. 

James Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, testified in April that "the General Assembly should insist that voucher schools have their students take the PSSA tests," which are taken by public school students. 

Linda Phelps, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools, which represents 40,000 students in 101 schools in the state, said they would oppose required standardized tests and posting aggregate test scores online. 

"A standardized test does not always accurately reflect how a student is progressing or achieving," Phelps said. Her organization generally supports vouchers. 

House Democrats generally oppose the voucher plan, though state Rep. Tony Payton, D-Philadelphia, is a prime sponsor of Christiana’s legislation because he said he supports school choice. 

State Rep. Ken Smith, D-Lackawanna, said creating a voucher program is not the best way to deal with the state’s failing schools. 

“Why reinvent the wheel for the sake of 144 failing schools? Why don’t we focus on the 144 failing schools and fix those?” Smith asked. “My fear is, at the end of the day, what if this experiment fails?” 

Tomalis said he wanted to focus on reality, rather than hypothetical situations. 

“These kids are already in a school that is failing,” Tomalis said. 

Tomalis said the administration wants vouchers available for students in schools which fall in the bottom 5 percent in aggregate math and reading scores, and those schools where fewer than 50 percent of students are at grade level for math and reading. 

In the spring session, the state Senate worked on a voucher bill which would begin with poor students in the state’s failing schools and expand during four years to include middle-income students. In that plan, a family of four earning less than $63,000 annually would be eligible for vouchers. 

The Senate failed to reach an agreement with House leadership on passing the measure, which allowed a different proposal to take shape in the lower chamber. Sponsored by state Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, and Payton, the House voucher bill would focus only on poor students in failing schools while also expanding the existing Educational Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC, program. 

The EITC program is funded through business contributions to scholarship funds, for which the businesses receive a 75 percent tax credit. The program is capped at $75 million, up from $60 million last year. 

The school choice issue will be high on the fall agenda for lawmakers in both chambers, but passage is far from a sure bet. Though Tomalis cleared up some questions about what Corbett would sign, issues still need to be resolved. 

State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre, said he was concerned about current language in the House bill that would allow private schools to choose which voucher students to accept if there were more applicants than available spaces. 

Phelps said the independent schools would oppose a lottery system because private schools select students who are appropriate for the programs offered by the school. 

"We don't think putting kids in a situation where they cannot achieve is a good thing," Phelps said. 

Despite holding 112 of the 203 seats in the state House, Republicans do not back the bill unanimously.

“My fear is that we are just going to bail on public education or create two tiers of public education,” said state Rep. Mike Fleck, R-Huntingdon. “There are a lot of underlying issues here that are not going to be addressed.”