HARRISBURG, Pa. — The more options, the better. That's the argument behind the GOP-backed bill in the state senate that would create a Pennsylvania Award for Student Success Scholarship Program.
"The ultimate form of accountability in education is when you have invested parents who say, this isn't working for my kid and I want to do what's best for them," said State Senator Scott Martin, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The program would give low-income families at schools in the bottom 15% of performance money to send their kids to private schools.
Parents would receive a $5,000 voucher for elementary schoolers, $10,000 for high schoolers and $15,000 for students with special needs.
Nathan Benefield, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative fiscal thinktank, said it could help address last year's Commonwealth court ruling that required the state to address inequitable funding.
"That ruling was saying that every student must have a meaningful opportunity to succeed in education and you can't just do that by saying 'Hey, we'll give you more money but you have to go to the same failing school that's failing over and over again,'" he said.
Benefield said the average private school costs $12,000 per year, but there are other tuition assistance programs available to families.
Democratic State Senator Jay Costa worries even with the voucher program private schools could still be cost-prohibitive for families.
"I share the concerns of parents that are concerned about whether or not they receive a modest voucher would be enough to be able to have them remove their children from a public school setting and move them into a private school setting," Costa said.
Costa said Senate Democrats are focused on addressing the court ruling, pushing for more basic education funding.
"I just don't see right now the need to be able to move resources, or not put them into public education when we know that we have a significant underfunding of our public education all across this commonwealth," he added.
PASS Scholarships could be a sticking point in budget negotiations once again.
Governor Shapiro supported the measure last year but did not include it in this year's budget proposal.
"The governor, he went back and said I want to get the budget done without fighting over this and yet continues to say he supports this, calling it the unfinished business from last year's budget," Benefield said. "I think it's certainly on the table for these negotiations."
No dollar amount has been attached to the PASS Scholarships bill, but a similar measure last year proposed a $100 million funding pool.
Pennsylvania's budget is due June 30.