Not+the+Way+to+Get+Voucher+Votes


 * By Brad Bumsted **

//Sunday, June 5, 2011// = = = = = **HARRISBURG **- Voucher advocates thus far have botched the opportunity. = = Well-funded for the first time to stand up against public employee unions, groups advocating vouchers for school choice should be at or near the goal line. With a governor, Tom Corbett, favoring vouchers, and a GOP-controlled Senate and House, this appeared the best shot at enacting vouchers. = = Better even than when Tom Ridge, another Republican, served as governor and twice pushed for vouchers. = = But the bill is stalled in the Senate, where the plan was to shoot for early passage, then battle it out in the House. = = Supporters might still prevail in a program to provide vouchers enabling lower- and middle-income kids to attend private or parochial schools. = = But it sure doesn't look like it right now. = = The effort came up short in the Senate when Senate Republicans split over issues of size and cost. = = The House then made its statement by passing a bill expanding a business tax credit program for educational scholarships, which has existed since 2001. = = Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin County, said that was dead on arrival. = = And then, voucher supporters started doing what no one has done for a while around here -- targeting the fence-sitting Republicans with robocalls, flooding their offices with phone calls and threats to fund primary opponents. = = At least two GOP senators -- Lisa Baker and Stewart Greenleaf -- were accused in radio ads of pandering to teachers unions. = = It's rough-and-tumble politics, more resembling a congressional-level or statewide political campaign. = = Not surprising, given that a Washington, D.C., group -- FreedomWorks -- is one of the groups leading the charge. Others include Students First-PA, the Commonwealth Foundation and Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania. = = Some found the campaign-style lobbying on an issue refreshing. = = But ask any lobbyist at the Capitol and they'll tell you it's not the way to get votes. = = Bullying lawmakers like Republican Sens. Pat Vance, Kim Ward and Iraq veteran John Pippy won't work. = = And Lisa Baker? = = As one GOP insider told me, "Beating up on Lisa Baker? You've got to be kidding. She's one of the nicest people in Harrisburg. It makes no sense." = = Corbett wasn't directing the effort. But he should have spotted the tenor of it early on and called off the dogs. = = The irony is that these "fence-sitters" representing the views of their districts are by and large sympathetic to the argument that something must be done to help kids in failing urban schools. = = But it's been S.B. 1 or the highway. = = The problem is that the scorched-earth approach of die-hard voucher advocates builds resentment. = = It makes lawmakers who've been smacked less willing to compromise. = = A blend of an expanded tax-credit program with a modest voucher program for low-income kids in the worst schools probably would fly. = = But now the problem is timing. = = If vouchers aren't done in connection with the state budget, there's no leverage. = = It will become an issue for the fall -- an eternity away in state politics -- and closer to the next re-election campaign for House members and some senators. = = Chances of passage diminish a bit more every day that the matter is postponed. = = = = =
 * Published in TRIBUNE-REVIEW **

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