Groups connected to Pennsylvania’s wealthiest billionaire and longtime voucher proponent, Jeffrey Yass, are once again pressuring Shapiro to opt into the Education Freedom Tax Credit, which was created under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans have spent a long time advocating for defunding public schools and putting money into the hands of parents and students, and this new voucher program does exactly that, with a bit of a catch.
This new tax credit allows individuals who have the money laying around to donate $1,700 to a scholarship-granting organization and receive a $1,700 federal tax credit at the end of year.
Households making up to 300% above the area median income will be eligible to receive these new vouchers and students could use the money on things like school supplies, room and board, and tutoring but scrutiny of taxpayer-funded vouchers has revealed that students benefiting from vouchers can sometimes use that money for trips to Disneyland, or other services normally provided by public schools.
Unlike private schools, public schools do not charge for those services individually and will not receive funding.
“ There is not $1 that will go to a public school to support a public school, said Executive Director for Education Voters of Pennsylvania Susan Spicka, during a recent webinar. “Individual public school students themselves may receive funding that will pay for allowable expenses, but the school districts themselves will receive no funding at all.”
