Seante+GOP+to+Broaden+Voacher+Bill+with+Monday+Amendment

= **Senate GOP to broaden voucher bill with Monday amendment. ** = = = =By Peter L. DeCoursey= =Bureau Chief= =Capitolwire= =HARRISBURG (April 9) – State Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, said Senate Bill 1 will get broader and reach middle class families sooner after it is amended Monday.= =That change will come when the Senate Appropriations Committee moves the bill Monday to the floor for a potential vote Tuesday or Wednesday.= =Piccola said he was confident that the bill, which he authored with Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, and with Senate GOP leaders, would pass that chamber. Its fast pace and potential vote this week suggest Senate GOP leaders share that view, Piccola said.= =Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, said Friday the bill would come before his panel Monday for a vote and perhaps a full Senate vote on Tuesday or Wednesday. Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, confirmed a full Senate vote could occur Tuesday or Wednesday, but said it was not certain.= =At Monday's scheduled Senate Appropriations Committee, Piccola said the bill will be amended to meet a persistent criticism of it: that it is too narrowly targeted towards poor families.= =Republican lawmakers hear that view often. On Friday at the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference meeting, Corman made a speech which mentioned his support for Senate Bill 1.= =Afterwards, conservative activist Michael Seidenberg came up to Corman while he talked to reporters in the lobby at the Radisson Penn Harris in Camp Hill.= =Seidenberg criticized the bill for only sending funds to poor kids in the state’s worst-performing schools, those which Piccola says are also the most “dangerous” for students.= =Seidenberg said the bill should do more for middle-class families, and not just be targeted at students whose family income is at 130 percent of the poverty level or less.= =Seidenberg said many middle-class families also live in failing school districts like his city, Philadelphia.= =On Wednesday, Piccola acknowledged those arguments and said he agreed with them. He said Senate Bill 1 addressed some of them already, and would soon address more of them.= = **“The ultimate goal is to have universal [school] choice and have the money follow the child. … We focus in the initial years on the failing schools… but that’s not where we stop,” Piccola said April 6th in a CapitolCast interview.** = =Piccola said his bill adds funding to the EITC, which gives businesses tax credits for a portion of the value of scholarships they give to kids attending private or other public schools.= =Piccola also said “We dramatically improve the EITC, the tax credit program where middle-class families are eligible, plus the use of the voucher in those failing schools in year two and year three afterwards, frees up a lot of EITC money, which will further enhance the EITC program for the middle class.”= =The problems that Seidenberg and many House Republican lawmakers pointed out will also be addressed in a forthcoming amendment to be added to the bill on Monday, Piccola said.= = **That amendment, Piccola said, includes “capping the cost of the third year [of the voucher program, when it would be available to all poor students] and take some of the excess tuition fund and make some of it available for pilot public school choice programs” around the state, with the remainder going to families “for a middle-class voucher,” for families at 130 percent to 300 percent of the poverty level.** = =Piccola said it will improve what was “already a good bill for the middle class, not in year one or year two, but in year three and four, and the out-years.”= =Piccola said that is what he will be saying when he meets with House Republicans this week to tout Senate Bill 1.= =As he evangelizes for this bill, he said he will emphasize: "... You don’t go from where we are now to absolute and universal choice overnight. You can’t do that. It’s just practically impossible. It’s politically impossible.= = **“But what we have done in this bill, for those who have that concern, we have laid out a pathway, a direct way of getting from where we are now to universal [school] choice in a reasonable amount of time.** = = **“… It will probably take ten years or more to get there, but as this program is implemented, it becomes very successful and popular, [then] taking those next steps becomes easier.”** = =Piccola said discussions with Gov. Tom Corbett and Education Secretary-designate Ron Tomalis are ongoing, and he believes their input will be incorporated into the bill at some point. Some already is in Senate Bill 1, or going into it Monday.= =Capping the third-year costs of the bill, when all poor students, regardless of their district, could use vouchers, helped deal with one of their concerns, Piccola said.= =Tomalis has declined to say anything more than to offer general praise of the bill, and say the administration will negotiate with the Legislature.= =When Corbett campaigned for governor, he endorsed the concept of the Piccola-Williams bill.= =But since taking office, Corbtt and administration officials have indicated sympathy for those who desire a broader bill, without ever saying what changed he wanted.= =Piccola said: “I think we understand them. I think we’re engaged in those discussions and they’re not major policy discussions,… stuff that is easily negotiated.”= =Piccola said the fact that Senate GOP leaders were pushing the bill towards a vote – while not confirming that it would definitely occur this week – showed the support the bill had.= =But opponents are also working hard, planning a Monday rally against it as counterpoint to the Senate meeting where its scope will be broadened.= =Many Democrats are trying to split apart Democratic and moderate GOP supporters who like the bill's focus on poor families, from conservative GOPers who wish the bill went further sooner.= =Piccola said the issue had momentum, but it was also crucial to keep moving forward to pass it in the Senate and get a vote in the House. Corbett has pushed to finish the budget in May, then use June to pass vouchers.= =Piccola said the budget had to come last, after tort reform, vouchers, and, if leaders insisted on it, Marcellus Shale issues.= =Piccola, a 35-year legislative veteran, said annual budgets come after “the big things get passed first.”= =A veteran of Gov. Tom Ridge’s repeated, vigorous and largely unsuccessful voucher crusade in the mid- and late-1990s, Piccola said it was important to not let the bill get picked apart.= =“One of the advantages of being around here a long time… is you understand there are seasons, legislative seasons, where things get accomplished,” Piccola said. “This kind of an issue is accomplished between now and the end of June when the budget’s put together and passed. And If it doesn’t happen before … July first, I don’t think it’s gonna happen anytime soon.”= = **The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.** = = ** If you care about public education, e-mail your Legislator today! ** = = For ** State ** issues, visit **http://www.psea.org/actnow**  = = For ** Federal ** issues, visit **http://www.educationvotes.nea.org**  =

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