Pennsylvania’s EITC
Spending the weekend in Pennsylvania got me thinking about their Educational Improvement Tax Credit- EITC- program, that has become a model for school choice and has given tens of thousands of PA families access to educational options they wouldn’t have had in the past.
The EITC program was approved by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the PA legislature in 2001, making the state the first to approve a tax credit for education aimed at corporations.
The PA REACH Foundation (Road to Educational Achievement through Choice) is a great resource for lawmakers, parents, or anyone interested in learning more about the program, how it is set up and how it benefits students and families.
HB 996, the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC), provides companies with a 75% tax credit for donations to a non-profit scholarship or educational improvement organization. The tax credit increases to 90% if the company commits to making the same donations for two consecutive years.
The program has proven so successful over the past 8 years, that it has continued to gain bi-partisan support as lawmakers have continued to expand the size of the program, helping more families to access educational options that best meet their needs.
$44,666,667 million is appropriated annually for scholarship organizations, $22,333,333 million for innovative educational improvement programs in public schools and $8,000,000 for a separate pre-kindergarten scholarship program.During 2007-08, 44,000 children across Pennsylvania benefited from EITC scholarships and countless numbers of children in public schools benefited from innovative programs that would have likely have gone unfunded.
Hello, my name is Sekou and I’m a sixth grader at the Nativity School. It is much different from public school and I enjoy going to there for many reasons. One reason is because there are smaller class sizes so you can hear more. Also, there are no girls to distract you or get you in trouble since there are all boys who can play rough. Another difference is that the classes are hard, and you have to study more and if you don’t do your homework, you get detention. Additionally, some of the teachers are nice, especially Mr. H, who talks about football for boys who like sports. I also like homeroom because we talk about sports and can talk to our friends.
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