TAXPAYER-FUNDED VOUCHERS

Pennsylvania has two programs that provide students with taxpayer-funded vouchers to private and religious schools: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs.  Since their inception in 2001, the EITC and OSTC programs have provided more than $2 billion in taxpayer-funded support for school vouchers.

In 2023-2024 the EITC and OSTC programs will provide $470 million to private scholarship organizations, which award tuition vouchers to families whose children attend private and religious schools.

State law explicitly prohibits the collection of information about who benefits from these programs, so there is no evidence that EITC/OSTC programs benefit children in poverty or help students in low-achieving schools attend higher achieving schools.

Private and religious schools that receive EITC/OSTC funding are allowed to discriminate against and refuse to enroll students for any reason, including disability, race, socio-economic status, and sexual orientation.

There is no evidence that more than TWO BILLION tax dollars spent on these programs have had a positive impact on student achievement in the Commonwealth because state law prohibits the collection of information about students’ academic progress.

Read our “Frequently Asked Questions about Pennsylvania’s EITC/OSTC Private/Religious School Voucher Programs.”

Click HERE for a chart of funding increases for the EITC and OSTC programs since 2001.