NEWS
RESPONSE to our letter to Auditor General DeFoor (again) requesting an audit of Commonwealth Charter Academy
UPDATE:On 4/4/2024 Auditor General DeFoor sent this letter to us. We look forward to the release of the CCA audit and will be looking specifically for information abou thow CCA has spent money on fleet vehicles, marketing staff, Family Fun Fests, food trucks, theme...
Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools
Ed Voters is a proud partner of the Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools (PA WInS) coalition, which includes the Education Law Center, ACLU-PA, Disability Rights-PA, the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, and many other valued partners. PA...
Finally some accountability for $470 million in school voucher spending in PA??!!
Pennsylvania has two programs that will spend a combined $470 million in 2023-2024 to provide taxpayer-funded vouchers to private and religious schools: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. ...
Our Testimony: School Vouchers Fund and Fuel Hate
I was honored to have been invited to speak at the House Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the Basic Education Funding Commission Report at the Chester County Intermediate Unit on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. I chose to focus my remarks on private school vouchers....
Why taxpayer-funded vouchers are a (really) bad idea for Pennsylvania.
We are gearing up for a big fight in Harrisburg to keep Governor Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers from expanding school vouchers in the 2024-2025 state budget. The proposed PASS/ESA private school voucher proposals would give tax dollars directly to families...
PA Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing on Education Recap
On Wednesday, February 28th, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a budget hearing with the Pennsylvania Department of Education that focused on the proposed funding for education in Governor Shapiro’s 2024-2025 state budget. Budget hearings offer lawmakers...
Join us for the May 8th Public Education Advocacy Day in Harrisburg!!
We are busily planning the PA Schools Work advocacy day, which will be on Wednesday, May 8th in Harrisburg. As we have stated, this is an education budget worth fighting for. We need to make sure that state lawmakers understand that their...
We took a cyber charter to court–AND WON!!
In May of 2022, we learned that Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA), PA’s largest cyber charter school, which received nearly $400 million in revenue in 2022, was providing families with hundreds of dollars per student in reimbursements each year using a...
This is a Budget Worth Fighting For
On Tuesday, February 6th, Governor Josh Shapiro gave his 2024-2025 state budget address. Below please find details of the funding proposals in the budget, including links to spreadsheets that will download and open as Excel files.. Click HERE to read the full response...
Governor Shapiro’s proposed, historic investment in public K-12 schools deserves strong support; a new private school voucher program that could make these investments in public schools short lived must be opposed.
For Immediate Release February, 6, 2024 Governor Shapiro’s proposed, historic investment in public K-12 schools deserves strong support; a new private school voucher program that could make these investments in public schools short lived must be opposed....
Gov. Shapiro should reject private school vouchers in his budget address
Private school vouchers are a very bad idea. As states around the nation adopt and expand these programs, we get a crystal clear understanding of the catastrophic impact that private school vouchers have on public schools AND the massive amount of tax dollars that...
New Cyber Charter School Approved by Shapiro Administration
On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 24th, Governor Josh Shapiro’s Department of Education quietly posted a letter addressed to Mark LeBlond informing him that the Department had granted his application for a five-year charter for the Pennwood Cyber Charter...
First Anniversary: Making the Right to Quality Education a Reality
February 7, 2024, will mark the one-year anniversary of the Commonwealth Court decision declaring Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional. We invite you to join us in the Capitol Rotunda at noon for an event with our partners from the PA Schools Work...
The Dangers of Private School Vouchers: Lessons Learned from the States
We invite you to join a webinar on Wednesday, January 24 at noon with experts in states that are experiencing the catastrophic impact of school voucher expansion. Sharon Kirsch, director of research for Arizona Save our Schools, and Kris Nordstrom, senior policy...
A major step forward on the path toward constitutional compliance
On Thursday, January 11th, Pennsylvania’s Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC) approved a detailed and comprehensive report with recommendations that, if implemented, would bring transformational change to Pennsylvania’s school funding system and have a...
Thank you for a great 2023!
This was quite a year for public education in Pennsylvania and our team is very grateful for the work that we’ve done together. On February 7th, students won a historic victory in Commonwealth Court. Our collective efforts are building the statewide movement we...
The Good, Bad & Ugly in PA’s budget resolution
Lawmakers ended a five-month budget stalemate on Wednesday (December 13th) when they passed code bills that finished up the 2023-2024 state budget. Below we look at the good, the bad, and the ugly for K-12 schools in the School Code, House Bill 301. Please don’t...
NEW REPORT: PA voucher schools use tax $$ to advance discrimination
Education Voters of PA recently released a report that examines discriminatory policies and practices in private and religious schools that participate in Pennsylvania’s Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) school voucher program. Students receiving...
PA’s Beautiful Movement to Fund Public Schools
On Tuesday, November 14th, more than 250 Pennsylvanians rallied on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg in support of a state funding system that will ensure ALL children have access to the comprehensive, effective, contemporary public education they are guaranteed by the...
Public Education is on the Ballot on November 7
Public education is on the ballot on Tuesday, November 7. Make sure to vote in person,or if you have already mailed in a ballot, check your ballot status HERE to ensure it has been received. If you have any issues with your ballot being rejected, you should...