New+Tuition+Voucher+Bill+Back+on+Track+for+Vote+Soon

= New tuition voucher bill would expand eligibility = = =

=By Tracie Mauriello,= =//Published in the Post-Gazette//= =//4/29/11//=

=HARRISBURG - Poor children hoping to use tuition vouchers for private school won't get them in time for next school year. Meanwhile, more middle-income children could be eligible for them in 2015, if the House and Senate approve.= =A school-choice bill derailed two weeks ago is back on track, but with changes that delay implementation, cap spending, expand eligibility and lengthen the time for the program to fully ramp up.= =Gov. Tom Corbett and Senate Republicans negotiated the changes after the bill was abruptly pulled from the Senate floor hours before a scheduled vote.= =Republican senators became concerned about the bill after a closed-door meeting with Education Secretary Ron Tomalis on the day of the scheduled vote, caucus spokesman Erik Arneson said Thursday.= ="He was a little less strident in his support for the bill than some members would have hoped," Mr. Arneson said. "He did not express specific concerns, but he stopped short of endorsing it."= =Mr. Tomalis did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.= =Vouchers allow eligible families to use state money - which would otherwise go to their children's public schools - to pay tuition at private schools or public ones outside their districts.= =The changes negotiated with the governor's office make more children eligible in the 2015-16 school year by increasing income limits to 350 percent of the federal poverty level ($78,225 for a family of four). The bill previously had an income limit of 300 percent of the poverty level ($67,050 for a family of four).= =The cost of vouchers for middle-income students cannot exceed 3 percent of state spending on basic education funding, which is projected to be about $163 million in 2015-16. That limit cap was reduced from $250 million during negotiations between Senate leaders and the governor.= =Spokesman Kevin Harley declined to say whether the governor specifically sought the increase in income limits but said he is not disappointed by it.= =Under the agreement, the vouchers first would be available in the 2012-13 school year to children who attend failing public schools whose family income does not exceed 130 percent of the federal poverty level ($28,665 for a family of four). In 2013-14, vouchers would be available to low-income children within attendance boundaries of failing schools, even if they attend other schools. In 2014-15, eligibility would expand to all low-income children statewide.=

=Sponsored by Sens. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, and Tony Williams, D-Philadelphia, the bill originally called for the first vouchers to be available this summer and the program to be fully expanded over three years.= ="The time frame changed and that allows school districts and the Department of Education a year to prepare. It's certainly a practical change that made sense," Mr. Harley said.= =Delaying implementation and reducing the spending cap doesn't appease school-choice opponents who say vouchers siphon needed money from public schools and that tax dollars should not be used to offset tuition at religious schools.= =Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa Jr. of Forest Hills said he has "significant concerns about redirecting and diverting a significant amount of dollars away from our public schools."= =He prefers expanding an existing program that provides tax credits to businesses that support education grants.= =The legislation already calls for an additional $25 million tax credits for the program starting in 2012-13. The program now offers $75 million a year in credits.= ="It's a modest increase but not enough," Mr. Costa said. "We support a real enhancement to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program, maybe even targeting to the same failing schools [Senate Republicans] are talking about."= =In Belle Vernon, the changes to Senate Bill 1 won't help Gina Iacoboni, an eighth-grader at St. Sebastian Regional School, who attended a pro-voucher rally in Harrisburg two weeks ago. She will have graduated by the time her middle-income family would be eligible.= =However, her younger sister, a third-grader, could get vouchers starting in middle school, according to the new timetable.= =Their father doesn't mind waiting.= ="They have to get this thing right, not do a Band-Aid thing," Ray Iacoboni said in a telephone interview Thursday. "Above all, we want (lawmakers) to try to get it right and to make it as expansive as possible. If they need time to work it out and make it fair for everyone, that's OK."= =Harrisburg Bureau Chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com or 1-717-787-2141.=

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