In December Republican leaders rigged the Senate Education Committee hoping they might secure enough votes to pass Senate Bill 2, the education savings account voucher bill. Senator Dan Laughlin (R-Erie), who opposed Senate Bill 2, resigned and Republican leadership appointed Senator Richard Alloway (R-Franklin) to take his place.

In response to the news of  Sen. Alloway’s appointment to the committee, hundreds of parents and community members in his district signed a letter asking him to oppose this voucher bill.

Sen. Alloway’s response was to send a misleading letter to more than 100 elected officials in his district defending his support for vouchers and telling them that “local opposition” to the bill (i.e., his constituents who don’t want tax dollars siphoned out of their communities’ public schools to pay for students’ private education) was misinformed.

Click HERE to share Sen. Alloway’s letter with your networks on Facebook.

Normally, lawmakers tout the benefits that legislation will provide the people and communities they represent. In Alloway’s letter he simply attempts to reassure elected officials that if he votes for the ESA voucher bill, their communities will suffer no harm.  (Of course we know that this isn’t true.  The list of schools where students would be eligible for vouchers changes every year. If just one school is designated a low performer, that school district could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding and be forced to raise property taxes or make cuts in programs).

Sen. Alloway’s constituents and voters throughout PA whose lawmakers champion Senate Bill 2 should be asking them this question: Who is really supporting this voucher scheme?  Community members in their districts who will pay higher school taxes in order to fund students’ private education? Or corporate donors who are giving campaign contributions to their party leaders? Something  doesn’t smell right about lawmakers’ fervent support for Senate Bill 2.