House Leader Expected to Endorse Compromise School Choice Bill

A renewed push for vouchers in Pennsylvania is about to get a big boost from the state House leadership. 

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, will be the second lead sponsor of a compromise school-choice bill authored by state Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, and is expected to endorse the legislation at a news conference tentatively scheduled for Monday in Harrisburg. 

Christiana’s legislation seeks to find common ground between competing school-choice proposals in the state House and state Senate by combining a voucher proposal with a measure to expand an existing scholarship tax-credit program. 

Christiana said he was “very excited” to have Turzai supporting his compromise bill, but the larger goal still remains. 

“I’m not really interested in small victories. I want the victory of this being signed into law, and hopefully we can get that done before the summer recess,” Christiana said. 

Steve Miskin, Turzai’s spokesman, on Thursday confirmed the leader’s intentions to endorse the new legislation. 

“Rep. Turzai has never made it a secret that he would and should vote for any school-choice proposal,” Miskin said. 

House leadership had previously avoided endorsing the voucher bill put forth by the state Senate, opting instead to support the expansion of existing educational scholarship programs. 

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, said it would not publicly comment on the bill until it has been formally introduced. 

However, the PSEA sent a memo to lawmakers Thursday afternoon telling them not to support Christiana's bill. The group claimed in the memo that the voucher legislation would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars." 

"The PSEA has not seen specifics of the proposal, but we strongly oppose any legislation which takes public money directly from public schools," read a portion of the memo. 

The endorsement from state House leadership is a major victory for school-choice advocates who have spent the past six months pushing a proposal to give vouchers to lower-class families who have kids in failing schools. It also increases the chances that a school choice bill will reach the governor’s desk either before or along with the state budget, which is due June 30. 

The Senate plan, led by state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, would provide vouchers to poor families in failing schools. The vouchers would be based on the state-level portion of the per-student spending at the school the student is leaving.

According to a Senate fiscal analysis, the bill would redirect about $50 million in the first year and $100 million in the second year, as more youths take advantage of the vouchers. 

After two years, the bill would expand to include some middle income families up to 300 percent of the federal poverty line. Teachers unions and public school officials have objected to the later years of the program, because the estimated cost is $1 billion. 

In April, the state House overwhelmingly approved a bill to expand the state’s existing Education Improvement Tax Credit, or EITC, program, which is funded by contributions from businesses that receive a 75 percent tax credit in return. The contributions provide scholarships for low- and middle-class students to attend private schools. More than 40,000 Pennsylvania students benefit from the EITC each year, but no taxpayer money goes to the program. 

The House bill would expand EITC funding from the current level of $60 million to $100 million next year and $200 million in subsequent years by increasing the cap on business contributions. 

Christiana’s proposed compromise would include the first two years of the state Senate bill--giving vouchers to poor students in failing schools--and would expand the EITC's funding to give more students access to that existing program. 

“I think the House has spoken overwhelmingly in support of the EITC expansion,” Christiana said. 

Both existing bills are sitting in the state Senate, but activists who have been working with lawmakers said the state House would have to move the compromise bill first. 

“I think the Senate is waiting for a clue from the House about what the language will be,” said Anastasia Przybylski, a member of the Kitchen Table Patriots, a Bucks County Tea Party group that has been pressing hard for school choice legislation. 

The compromise bill is expected to have some bipartisan support, as well.

State Rep. Tony Payton, D-Philadelphia, the leading Democratic voice on the school-choice issue in the state House, supports the Christiana bill. 

“We should help as many children as we can," Payton said. "If you take the EITC, coupled with the voucher proposal, I think that's the perfect marriage, politically, to get it done." 

Likewise, state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, minority chairman of the Senate Education Committee, previously expressed support for a compromise along the lines of what Christiana has proposed. 

Dinniman could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

In an emailed statement Thursday, Piccola said he is willing to discuss a negotiated compromise with the House leadership around year one and two and the EITC.