The Pennsylvania House passed House Bill 800, a massive expansion of Pennsylvania's  Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) school voucher program. House Bill 800 would increase funding for vouchers for private and religious school students in the 2019-2020 budget  by $100 million, to $210 million in 2019-2020, with an additional $50 million in funding for the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) program.

A built-in 10% annual increase in funding would bring the EITC school voucher total alone to $544 million in just 10 years with unchecked, unlimited expansion every year into the future.

Now House Bill 800 moves to the Senate. We need to stop it there.

Please send a letter to your senator asking him/her to oppose House Bill 800 and any expansion of the EITC voucher program in Pennsylvania.

HB 800 also increases the opportunities for even more wealthy families to benefit from EITC vouchers by substantially raising the family income limit by $10,000 from $85,000 per family to $95,000 plus $15,608/child.

Another expansion of EITC/OSTC tax credit vouchers to subsidize families' private school tuition is unconscionable in a state that underfunds public schools so much that rich districts with their own resources have a third more funding per student than poor. It is a further departure from the basic principles of equal educational opportunity and quality public education for all – and a further consolidation of “separate but unequal” schooling using taxpayer dollars.

Please contact your state lawmakers now and tell them that any additional education funding in the 2019-2020 budget should be allocated to meet the urgent needs of Pennsylvania's PUBLIC schools.