Corbett education initiatives sent for Senate vote

A state Senate committee approved legislation Tuesday that moves forward three key Corbett administration education initiatives: vouchers, charter-school expansion, and increased funding of tax credits that pay for private-school tuition.

The full Senate could vote on the proposal as early as Wednesday.

The law, if passed, would help pay the private-school tuition of low-income public school children who attend the lowest-performing schools and want out. In the second year, it would pay tuition for low-income students in those schools' attendance areas who already attend private schools.

School boards would get new powers to convert regular public schools to charters, and it would be easier to appeal rejected charter applications. It would set new academic and fiscal standards.

The Educational Improvement Tax Credit program would increase to $100 million, from $75 million, with more increases in future years.

"This is about [making] a public-policy statement about a responsibility the state has to students trapped in unsafe and underperforming schools," Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Phila.) said of the voucher proposal.

Replied State Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery): "To help a small percentage of kids, we're going to be hurting badly the overwhelming majority of kids" by using state education dollars to pay for vouchers.

Tuesday's Senate Education Committee vote was 9-2, with Williams and Andrew Dinniman joining seven Republicans. Democrats Jim Ferlo (D., Allegheny) and Leach voted no.

Despite Republican control of the governor's office, the Senate and the House, the new proposal's fate is uncertain. House Republican leaders have been lukewarm about many aspects of the plan; similar proposals introduced individually earlier this year went nowhere.

A list of the 143 schools where students would be eligible for vouchers, released Tuesday, includes 88 Philadelphia schools, six schools in Delaware County's Chester Upland district, and three in Delaware County's William Penn district. Those schools scored in the bottom 5 percent statewide on math and reading tests.

In 2018-19, the low-achieving list would expand to cover any school where 50 percent or fewer of students met state standards on tests.

The legislation mirrors most of the proposals Gov. Corbett made in an Oct. 11 speech at a York County charter school, but some details differ. The bill does not set up a state board Corbett had requested that could bypass local school boards in granting charters. And Corbett did not call for vouchers to low-income children already in private schools.

Corbett said in a statement Tuesday: "Today's action . . . is an important step in the process" of passing "a strong education reform package."

Voucher income eligibility would be 130 percent of the federal poverty rate - $29,000 or less for a family of four. Families making 130 percent to 185 percent of the poverty rate would get three quarters of the state allocation.

Estimates earlier this year pegged voucher costs for the first year at about $16 million, assuming 3 percent of eligible students used vouchers. They would grow to about $82 million in the second and succeeding years.

Schools accepting vouchers would have to give students either state math and reading tests or a standardized achievement test in grades three, five, eight, and 11.

School districts could set aside 10 percent or more of local funds for students who want to attend public schools in other districts. Neither private schools nor districts would be required to accept transfers.

The proposal's charter-school provisions would scrap a requirement in effect in all districts outside of Philadelphia that says a majority of staff and parents must approve to convert a regular public school into a charter school. Instead, it would take a majority school board vote.

The proposal also eliminates provisions in effect outside Philadelphia requiring a certain number of resident signatures to be submitted before the state charter appeals board could hear an appeal.

It outlines a process to establish academic standards that charters would have to meet to stay in operation, and it sets new fiscal and reporting requirements. And it eliminates a provision in the law that bans charter administrators from working for more than one school, substituting a financial-disclosure requirement.

Charters would be granted for five years instead of the current three, and renewed for 10 years, instead of the current five. Charters could be amended, to allow schools to expand beyond their current grade spans.

The Educational Improvement Tax Credit provisions of the proposal would make $100 million in tax credits for businesses available in 2012-13 to pay for private school tuition and for "innovative" programs provided by nonprofit "educational-improvement organizations."

The figure would grow to $125 million in 2014-15 and by 5 percent each subsequent year. Families with one child and an income of up to $72,000 would qualify.