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LIVE Coverage of House Education Committee Hearing on School Choice

Tune in this Wednesday, July 27th, starting at 10:00AM for live updates from the House Education Committee hearing on school choice.

Legislative action on vouchers and the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) is expected when the General Assembly reconvenes in the fall.

The schedule of speakers is as follows:

10:00-10:15 Introductions

10:15-11:00 School Reform Commission-Dr. Lee Nunery, Assistant Superintendent

11:00-11:45 City of Philadelphia, Dr. Lori Shorr, Chief Education Officer

11:45-12:30 Philadelphia Student Union, Baseerah Watson

Education Law Center, Baruch Kintisch

The Arc of Philadelphia, Dr. Nofre Vaquer

12:30-1:15 Lunch

1:15-2:00 Students First, Dawn Chavous

DISCO, Shirley Randleman

2:00-2:30 UNITEPA, Sharon Cherubin

Independence Hall Tea Party Association, Don Adams

2:30-3:00 Philadelphia Archdiocese, Sister Edward Quinn, IHM and Jason Budd

3:00-3:30 Freedom Works, David Spielman

Please feel free to add your own thoughts, concerns, and questions in the comment box below.

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Comment by Baruch Kintisch on July 27, 2011 at 3:49pm: The Catholic school system witnesses discuss at length the high quality of their schools. They said nothing about why taxpayer dollars should be used to support religious institutions. They also did not address the constitutional prohibitions against this.

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 3:48pm: Unite PA agrees with some of the committee members that we should follow how EITC students do, but Rep. Roebuck reiterates that the state law explicitly prohibits us from asking any questions about who the EITC funds are going to, how they are doing, and what schools they are attending. Rep. Roebuck also emphasizes the fact that corporate tax credits, that fund EITC, are a form of tax money. Shouldn't there be some kind of accountability and transparency with how this money is spent? If EITC is about helping poor students, as Students First claims, why are companies allowed to award EITC scholarships to upper-class students attending prep schools?

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 3:43pm: Unite PA contends that homeschooling is "the most cost-effective method of education in the state" and warrants a portion of EITC funds. I wonder what others think about this.

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 3:39pm: There is discussion throughout the hearing about standardized testing in private schools as a means of ensuring accountability. Should students who attend private schools through the use of a voucher or EITC scholarships be required to take the PSSA? Is the PSSA the best measure of student achievement, given the presence of "teaching to the test" in many public schools and the problems with high-stakes testing?

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 3:34pm: Dawn reasons that by expanding school choice through vouchers, charter expansion, and EITC, this would help create a "healthy competitive market of schools" and that by providing more options, this would "force public schools to work harder" to avoid losing more and more students. As Research For Action has found, however, there is no nonpartisan research that supports this claim. Such improvement in traditional public schools is especially unlikely given that none of the "school choice" legislation requires that charter schools or voucher/EITC-accepting private schools share ideas and best practices with traditional public schools in their neighborhood. Since they are directly competing for students and funding, there is no absolutely no incentive for schools to do so.

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 3:22pm: Dawn Chavous from Students First spent most of her testimony advocating in favor of HB 1708.

She mentions that under HB 1708, there will be academic accountability because private and religious schools participating in the program will need to take some kind of nationally-approved standardized test. Can anyone confirm that this language is in the bill?

Dawn is in favor of increasing the dollar amount of EITC scholarships. This acknowledges the fact that many private schools have tuitions that are much higher than the amount provided by EITC or that would be provided through a voucher.

Comment by D milo on July 27, 2011 at 3:09pm: Any thing being said about Rep Christianas HB 1708 the "compromise bill" ?

Comment by Baruch Kintisch on July 27, 2011 at 2:58pm: The Tea Party witnesses support House Bill 1678, giving a $5,000 voucher to all students regardless of family income. They also want the voucher to go to home schooling families. I wonder how low-income taxpayers would feel about their money going to wealthier families.

Comment by Baruch Kintisch on July 27, 2011 at 2:34pm: The advocates in favor of vouchers are testifying this afternoon. They ask, "Why not give parents a choice? What's wrong with that?" They don't really get into the details beyond that. I wonder what they think about the state constitution that prohibits using state funding for religious school instruction. Or what do they think about children with disabilities who will get denied when they apply to private schools. Or how they expect low-income parents to pay for private school tuition above the value of the voucher. State law cannot be built on rhetoric. Let's have a real dialogue. I would really want to hear their more detailed responses.

Comment by William Lin on July 27, 2011 at 12:30pm: Sorry, that previous post was by me, not Susan. Susan has been kind enough to let me share her computer today.

Baruch points out many facts hidden within the proposed legislation that has not received media attention. For example, under the current draft of voucher legislation, only 9 out of every 100 students in PA's lowest-performing public schools would actually receive a voucher. For students attending eligible private and religious schools, 100 out of every 100 students (not a typo) would receive a voucher. This seriously calls into question if the goal of the voucher bill is really about helping low-income students in poorly-performing schools.