{"id":297533,"date":"2026-10-01T10:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297533\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:40:07","slug":"felice-fein-why-are-pennsylvanias-children-being-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297533\/","title":{"rendered":"Felice Fein: Why are Pennsylvania\u2019s children being left behind?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Signed into law in July 2025 the Working Families Tax Cut Act<\/a> was a powerhouse piece of legislation. Among many other things, it lowered tax rates for all Americans, doubled the standard tax deduction, reduced taxes and reporting requirements for small businesses, created tax-advantaged savings accounts for children \u2013 Trump Accounts, and encouraged school choice through the use of the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While other pieces of the legislation were already implemented, the EFTC will go into effect on January 1, 2027. The EFTC was established to provide scholarships to students struggling in underperforming schools by providing the financial means to choose a better education. However, Pennsylvania children may not get the educational benefit that they deserve. It appears that Governor Shapiro may be playing politics at the expense of the welfare of some of our most vulnerable children.<\/p>\n

The EFTC provides a tax credit against tax liability of up to $1,700 per donor of qualified contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO) in participating states. The SGO must have a 501(c)(3) public-charity status and maintain a separate account for EFTC contributions. Additionally, at least 90% of its income must go to scholarships, and those scholarships must be apportioned to the educational expenses of at least ten students who do not all attend the same elementary or secondary school.\u00a0Directed donations to particular students is not allowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Student scholarship eligibility is dependent upon household income being at or below 300% of the area median income. Scholarship awarded to qualified students can help to pay tuition, tutoring, technology, and transportation expenses among other things. Eligible scholarships are governed by federal and state requirements, including donor contributions, scholarship distributions, student eligibility, and reporting\/audits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once a state opts into the EFTC program, it must develop a list of eligible SGOs and provide it to the Department of the Treasury as early as practicable. In subsequent years, the list is due by January 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If a state chooses not to participate, then donors from that state may still contribute to SGOs in other states and receive the tax credit. However, the associated scholarships would go to children of those other states, not to that of the donor.<\/p>\n

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which uses the same tests across all states, only 33% of all Pennsylvania fourth grade students were proficient in reading<\/a> and only 41% of fourth grade students tested proficient in math<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the time students were tested in eighth grade, the proficiency levels dropped: 31% proficiency in reading<\/a>, and 31% proficiency in math<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Pennsylvania proficiency scores are close to the national average. The bad news is that the national average proficiency in reading and math is in the 30\u2019s and 40\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The United States is in an educational crisis with our children becoming less literate and less skilled in math and science each year. Our next generation is falling further behind other developed nations in the race to create, develop, and produce 21st century commodities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those states that choose to participate in the EFTC will provide educational opportunities to children through scholarships, which will likely improve proficiencies in reading and math. Students in states not participating will fall behind those other states in academic achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

In June the Department of the Treasury provided a preview<\/a> of the implementation guidance for the EFTC. It indicated that proposed regulations would address\u00a0state participation, SGO eligibility and compliance, taxpayer claims, reporting, and program-integrity rules. Treasury expects proposed regulations to be released within the next few days by the end of September 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on the framework provided, 30 states have opted into the program and one state, New York, is expected to opt into it. Four states have declined. An EFTC state participation map can be found here<\/a>. Qualifying families in 31 states will receive billions in donated scholarship money to help boost their educational outcomes.<\/p>\n

Governor Shapiro has not yet agreed to participate in the EFTC. Why?<\/p>\n

Will the governor wait until the proposed regulations are released to agree to allow donated funds to assist struggling Pennsylvania families and students? Since he is running for re-election, will the governor postpone any decision until after the November election? His campaign donors may not be happy with him if he chooses to participate in the EFTC.<\/p>\n

Governor Shapiro vetoed school voucher legislation<\/a> in 2023, named Pennsylvania Award for Student Success, after campaigning that he supported choice in education. The EFTC provides families with opportunities to choose better learning environments or supplemental educational programs. This legislation is good for Pennsylvania students and doesn\u2019t take money from school districts.<\/p>\n

If Governor Shapiro truly wanted to provide a school choice\/voucher system in Pennsylvania but succumbed to pressure from his party in 2023, then EFTC provides him with another vehicle to accomplish a similar end. Will he allow that opportunity train to leave the station or will Pennsylvania children be stuck on the train to terminal illiteracy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Signed into law in July 2025 the Working Families Tax Cut Act was a powerhouse piece of legislation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[227,77000,33,28,30,29,8064,122878],"class_list":["post-297533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-education","tag-education-freedom-tax-credit","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-school-choice","tag-working-families-tax-cut-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297533","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=297533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}