Every year, a few people in the legislature try to bring back the idea of vouchers, which give public dollars to pay tuition for private/religious schools.

HB 2169 is the latest attempt to establish an education voucher program in the Commonwealth. It has passed the PA House and is now headed to the PA Senate for a vote.

This current version of a voucher proposal would cost almost $170 million! School districts in Pennsylvania are already underfunded and this legislation requires that money for vouchers be deducted from a school district’s state subsidy.

There are no income limits for families to receive a voucher, which means voucher money can end up being a handout to wealthy famlies who already send their children to private schools.  

AND the program would use debit cards to provide voucher money to families, a recipe for waste, fraud and abuse. In Arizona parents have used voucher debit cards on unauthorized purchases, including a new television. One parent enrolled their child in a public school and accepted the money from the voucher debit card. Another parent used their debit card to pay for a child that did not even reside in Arizona.