January 15, 2018

Take action! PSBA urges school boards to adopt resolution opposing Education Savings Account voucher plan under Senate Bill 2 Efforts that began in the Senate Education Committee last fall to pass Senate Bill 2 (Sen. DiSanto, R-Dauphin), legislation to establish Education Savings Accounts for students to use at private schools or with private vendors, are expected to pick up again very soon. The bill is likely to be scheduled for action and approved by the Senate Education Committee quickly, thus moving the issue to a larger debate in the Senate and possibly, the House of Representatives. Now is the time for school boards to take action and to keep the momentum building against this latest attempt to advance a voucher plan. PSBA is providing a sample resolution for school boards to adopt and send it to their legislators in the Senate and House as soon as possible. It is critical for the public education community make noise on this issue. Adopting a resolution makes a very clear statement from your board. In the coming days, PSBA will be providing more information and materials for school officials to use in their advocacy efforts.  What are ESAs? Education Savings Accounts (ESA) under Senate Bill 2 are a voucher program that will take hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from public schools and send that money to private schools, private companies, religious schools and even personal tutors. ESA vouchers will cost - not save - money for taxpayers and public schools. It has been estimated that the voucher plan will siphon more than $500 million from the state's school districts. There is no real or meaningful academic or financial accountability for ESA voucher recipients, private schools and vendors that accept ESA voucher money. ESA voucher plans are vulnerable to fraud and abuse, and families and taxpayers lose when ESA vouchers are made available to enroll children in private schools. Please adopt the sample resolution opposing Senate Bill 2 PSBA has drafted a sample resolution for your board to complete and adopt. The resolution is editable, and you can copy and paste it into a document with your school district logo. Please consider adopting the resolution at your next board meeting. Send it to your legislators, post it on PennLink, and share with your community in your newsletters and social media, and send a copy to PSBA. Click here for the text of the resolution Click here for contact information for the Senate Click here for contact information for the House of Representatives