Pennsylvania is losing the school choice race to its neighbors

By Marc LeBlond and Myles Slade-Bowers

Pennsylvania’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The Governor and the legislature are tasked, by law, with passing a budget to ensure funding of K-12 students, state police, and human services, such as SNAP and Medicaid. It is supposed to be enacted before the 4 th of July. This year’s budget was finalized in mid-November, when people are thinking about pumpkins and turkey, not hot dogs and fireworks.

The enacted budget raises overall spending, increases public district school funding, and adds some additional funding for low-income students participating in Pennsylvania’s tax credit scholarship program, Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC).

While the increase to EITC will provide much needed purchasing power to certain low-income fam