We expect the Pennsylvania House to vote this week on House Bill 2632, which would create reporting requirements, transparency, and oversight for Pennsylvania’s Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs, including $575 million allocated for private school vouchers through these programs in the 2025-2026 state budget. 

The school privatization lobby and their billionaire backers are swarming the Capitol and spreading wild misinformation about this bill in an effort to keep Pennsylvanians in the dark about how hundreds of millions of tax dollars are spent on private school vouchers each year.

Click here to tell your state lawmakers to support House Bill 2632, a bill that would require transparency and accountability for Pennsylvania’s education tax credit programs. Pennsylvanians deserve to know what they are getting in return for hundreds of millions of tax dollars used to support private school vouchers.

Background

Since 2001, Pennsylvania has provided more than $3.5 billion in funding for private and religious school vouchers through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. Yet Pennsylvanians know virtually nothing about who has benefited from these programs or how this funding has been spent. In addition, a lack of public audits leaves these funds susceptible to waste and abuse.

Pennsylvania’s tax credit voucher programs have:

• No requirements for audits of organizations or private schools that receive funding.

• No safeguards prevent families whose incomes exceed program limits from receiving vouchers.

• No data collection to show who has benefited from these programs.

• No way to evaluate impact –positive or negative–that spending $3.5 billion on school vouchers has had on education in Pennsylvania.  

On June 14, the House Education Committee passed House Bill 2632, a bill that aims to create real transparency and accountability for education tax credit programs so that Pennsylvanians know what they are getting in return for the enormous amount of money spent on these programs each year.

House Bill 2632 would: 

• Level fund education tax credits at $680 million per year. 

• Continue to fund vouchers for students attending private and religious schools.

• Target resources to students who need them the most.

• Require more transparency about where tax dollars go and who receives them.

• Require audits and reporting to guard against the misuse of tax dollars.

• Replace the current EITC and OSTC programs in 2027-2028 with a new Education Options Tax Credit program that continues to fund programs at the same level.

Click HERE for a deep dive into the details of HB2632. 

Click HERE to read our FAQ about the current EITC and OSTC programs,

State law requires extensive reporting and accountability for public schools that receive tax dollars. It is reasonable to expect that the legislature would also require private schools receiving tax dollars and the organizations funneling this funding to them to report information that is sufficient to ensure an understanding of who benefits from the programs and allow for a meaningful evaluation of those programs.

Please contact your state lawmakers today and ask them to support House Bill 2632 to bring transparency and accountability to Pennsylvania’s education tax credit programs.