Sen.+Piccola+Says+Corbett+Voucher+Agreement+Set

= **Capitolwire: Sen. Piccola says Corbett voucher agreement set. UPDATED WITH AMENDMENT DETAILS. ** = = = = //With a Washington, D.C. speech to a pro-Senate Bill 1 group looming for Gov. Corbett, changes to the bill have the governor "supporting the bill enthusiastically,” said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.// =

=By Peter L. DeCoursey= =Bureau Chief= =Capitolwire= =HARRISBURG (April 27) - Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, said he and Gov. Tom Corbett have reached an agreement on changes to the voucher proposal, Senate Bill 1.= =“We have language that the governor supports and we will amend the bill accordingly,” Piccola responded by e-mail. “He is now supporting the bill enthusiastically.”= =The agreement comes more than a week before Corbett is scheduled to speak to a Washington, D.C. group that has worked hard to support Senate Bill 1. His schedule and the new agreement on Senate Bill 1, also shows his growing commitment to the bill, sources said. Corbett staff did not respond to requests for comment.= =The changes negotiated by senateo Republicans and Corbett officials essentially delay the start of vouchers until July 2012 and cut the third-year scholarships from $250 million to an estimated $163 million.= =Piccola wrote in an e-mail: “No changes to concepts [of Senate Bill 1] at all.”= =Piccola said Senate Education Committee meeting to adopt the changes was yet to be scheduled.= =Senate GOP leaders said Senate Bill 1 will incorporate Corbett’s input, but it will conceptually remain the same, despite House resistance, said Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.= =State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-Montgomery, said Tuesday that his bill would expand the current Educational Improvement Tax Credit from its proposed level for this year of $75 million to $100 million and to $200 million the following year. It would also make families earning up to $60,000 eligible for the scholarships, which average about $1,100 each. In 2012, family income could rise up to $75,000 without ending program eligibility.= =Currently, only families whose annual income is lower than $50,000 can qualify for EITC scholarships. That bill was passed by the House Education Committee Monday, 21-4.= =Quigley told the PA Independent website: “This bill makes our statement as it relates to school choice. People are more comfortable with something that has a track record.”= =House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin said that bill is planned for debate on amendments May 2, and “hopefully final passage on the EITC anniversary on Tuesday.”= =Senate GOP leaders had hoped for talks with the House GOP leaders on Senate Bill 1, which they say Gov. Tom Corbett told them was a high priority.= =“The governor said the concepts in Senate Bill 1 were in his first-six-month priorities,” Scarnati said. “And we have worked with him on that and we will continue to work with him on that. And his agenda goes beyond the EITC for school choice, and so does ours.= =“Obviously, we all support the EITC and increasing it is a good idea which we can support. But I don’t think the EITC is the only thing Gov. Corbett wants on choice, and he told us he wants the concepts in Senate Bill 1, so that is what we are working on. So we look forward to working with the House.”= =Miskin responded: “Vouchers are something we are looking at among a number of education proposals. We are working with the governor and Senate to improve educating our kids. Even with the $23 billion, there are still kids graduating who can’t read or write or do math.= =“Obviously, vouchers are going to be part of a discussion that is going to be coming up.”= =Senate Bill 1, before the forthcoming changes resulting from recent negotiations with Gov. Corbett’s staff, proposed a multi-year voucher plan for the poor. It would start by allowing poor students in the state’s worst-performing 144 schools to have a voucher of about $7,000 to pay tuition at another school.= =It would expand from serving about 2,000 students its first year, the Senate GOP estimates, to serving about 75,000 poor students its fourth year, when its cost would rise to about $360 million. The amendment will cut that cost by about $90 million. It would also expand the EITC to $100 million.= =Senate Republicans released summarizing the amendments. It said the amended bill would now delay the voucher program until July 1, 2012. That first year the program would be limited to low-income children in the state's worst 144 schools. Year two would then extend the vouchers to any poor kids in the areas served by those schools. Year three, now 2014-15, would expand the program statewide to all poor students.= =The fourth year would now expand the middle-class vouchers, which were estimated at about $11 million, at most, to kids in families making up to 350 percent of the poverty level, or $78,225.= =The amendment also states the department of education will administer the program, not an independent board. The board proposed by the current law will become an advisory board, and also have the power to approve department guidelines.= =A memo released by Senate Republicans stated: "PDE’s definition of “LOW-ACHIEVING SCHOOLS” will be utilized with a separate ranking of elementary and secondary schools focusing on the bottom 5% of combined math and reading scores on most recent PSSA."= =It also said that in 2015-2016, the voucher funds in exceess of actual tuition paid "will start funding the Public School Choice Demonstration Grants for school districts to establish their own tuition grant programs (Public to Public) and for funding the Middle-Income Scholarship Program."= =Corbett has said he wants to get the bill changed, reach agreement with the Senate, and move the bill to the House, then onto the statute books.= =He is scheduled to speak May 9 in Washington, D.C. to a national voucher-supporting group that has strongly supported the backers of Senate Bill 1, the American Federation for Children.= =The federation last year gave $1 million last year to the Students First pro-vouchers PAC, which then gave about $800,000 to state lawmakers, about two-thirds of it to GOP lawmakers and groups. More than half went to GOP lawmakers and Republican legislative PAC committees.= =That group is also closely allied with three top officers of Susquehanna International Group, who gave $5.6 million to Senate Bill 1 co-author Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, last year. Betsy Devos, whose family control the federation, has worked on and funded pro-vouchers efforts with the three men whose funding helped Senate Bill 1 become the voucher proposal in Pennsylvania: Joel Greenberg, Arthur Dantchik and Jeffrey Yass.= =Those three men made a $300,000 commitment to Corbett's campaign, which was carried out by the federation and Greenberg through contributions to the Republican Governors Association, sources said.=

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