Corbett OKs tax $ for use in private schools

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett's month-old administration yesterday officially endorsed the use of taxpayers' money to enable low-income students in failing public schools to transfer to private schools.

State Education Secretary-nominee Ronald Tomalis, the first speaker at a Senate Education Committee hearing, said that targeting school vouchers at low-income youngsters in the worst-performing public schools would intensify competition within the state's educational system to produce "exponential benefits" for all students.

Tomalis did not endorse a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, committee chairman, that within three years would allow any low-income public-school student to use the per-pupil subsidy that the state government sends to his or her school district to attend a different private, public or religious school. Tomalis said the bill "starts the conversation" about how to expand choices for students.

Sen. Anthony Williams, a Philadelphian who campaigned on the issue of school choice in a losing bid for the Democratic nomination for governor last year and is a co-sponsor of Piccola's bill, said that the issue is about civil rights.

"Separate but unequal is what we have," he said.

Opponents said the bill could cost taxpayers as much as $1 billion a year once fully implemented. It also would undermine public education by draining money from local districts, would fail to hold the nonpublic schools accountable for students' academic progress or how the voucher money is spent, and would leave it up to those schools to decide which students should be accepted, they said.