{"id":136701,"date":"2026-03-12T20:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/136701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:20:07","slug":"pennsylvania-gov-shapiro-wont-say-if-state-will-opt-into-new-school-choice-tax-credits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/136701\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro won\u2019t say if state will opt into new school choice tax credits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

School choice advocates and two Philadelphia lawmakers are urging Gov. Josh Shapiro to opt into a federal tax-credit scholarship program that would pay for private school tuition and other education expenses. <\/p>\n

But Shapiro is delaying his decision until President Donald Trump\u2019s administration releases rules laying out how much control and accountability states will have over the federal program.<\/p>\n

The strategy from Shapiro and other Democratic governors to put off making a yes-or-no decision on the tax credits reflects the barrage of political pressures<\/a> they are facing. <\/p>\n

Supporters of the tax credit say that governors who spurn the program are simply losing out on funding that will go to other states, instead of helping their students. But embracing a measure backed by the Trump administration that promotes private school choice might clash with the ideological preferences of Democratic officials and many of their voters. <\/p>\n

Pennsylvania already authorizes two tax-credit scholarship programs, the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit and Educational Improvement Tax Credit. Both give tax breaks to businesses that donate to organizations that provide private school scholarships to students. <\/p>\n

But the federal program doesn\u2019t rely on state funding. The new federal tax credit, which passed last summer as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, would reimburse taxpayers for donations of up to $1,700 annually to scholarship-granting organizations.<\/p>\n

The program allows donations to pay for more than just private school tuition. Proponents say those scholarship funds could be put toward tutoring, after-school programs, education technology and other educational expenses for both private and public school students.<\/p>\n

But there are still many questions unanswered.<\/p>\n

We’re here to help.<\/p>\n

Every day, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reporters are answering your questions, following the money, and digging into what’s happening in the city’s public schools. Keep up with our free newsletter, delivered every Wednesday and Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Treasury Department is developing rules outlining how much authority states will have over the program. Those rules could spell out how public school students could benefit<\/a> alongside private school students, or whether states could require that scholarship granting organizations serve only low-income families or prohibit them from discriminating against LGBTQ students and teachers. <\/p>\n

The rules could also outline how the federal program may or may not stack with existing state tax-credit scholarships.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Shapiro said in a statement Thursday his office is \u201cawaiting federal guidance to address key questions about how this program would work, including which students will be eligible, how this federal initiative will interact with existing programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican supporters of the tax credit made their case at a press conference Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Pennsylvania does not opt in, residents here can still claim the [tax] credit, but their donations will go to scholarships in other states,\u201d state Rep. Martina White, a Republican who represents parts of Philadelphia, said at a press conference on Thursday. \u201cIn other words, Pennsylvania taxpayers will help fund scholarships elsewhere while our students miss out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democratic state Sen. Anthony Williams, who represents Philadelphia, was not in attendance on Thursday, but sent a statement in support of the federal program. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Pennsylvania chooses to opt out, then we can say with certainty that the first $1,700 of every single Pennsylvania taxpayer\u2019s federal taxes will leave the state, and it\u2019s going to go to the U.S. Treasury, to the IRS,\u201d Jorge Elorza, CEO of Democrats for Education Reform, said at the press conference. \u201cWho knows what\u2019s going to happen with the money when it gets there?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Susan Spicka, executive director of the public education advocacy group Education Voters PA, told Chalkbeat it is \u201cwildly irresponsible for anyone to call for Pennsylvania to opt into the federal voucher program before Treasury issues rules delineating how the program will work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spicka said without those rules, it\u2019s unclear how much it will cost taxpayers for the state to implement and oversee the program. <\/p>\n

Without clear accountability measures<\/a>, Spicka worried the program could open the door \u201cfor extraordinary opportunities for waste, fraud, and abuse.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16473,37,539,28,30,29,19865,85],"class_list":["post-136701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-capitol","tag-harrisburg","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-secretary-of-state-al-schmidt","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}