POTTSTOWN PA – Although supporters of the Pennsylvania Senate’s program to create a school voucher system have postponed a vote on that plan, possibly until the fall, the Pottsgrove School District and others that stand to lose more state funding if the proposal goes through have wasted no time making their opposition to it publicly known.

Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis, left, and Pottsgrove school board President Michael Neiffer talk before the board's May 10 meeting

Senate leaders last week reportedly struggled to work out differences with state House representatives, among them Lower Pottsgrove’s Rep. Tom Quigley, who would prefer vouchers as part of an expanded but somewhat more subdued tax-credit program. Meanwhile, the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors earlier this month (May 10, 2011) joined the growing chorus of their colleagues in asking taxpayers and voters to fight the effort.

The board’s statement of protest was neither original or unique. It basically filled in the blanks with its name, or that of the district, on a cookie-cutter form distributed by the state School Boards’ Association. It did, however, receive unanimous approval in condemning plans to let state educational funding “follow the student,” as one advocate calls it, rather than stay with the district where the student lives.

School boards across the state have signed similar pronouncements.

Pottsgrove estimates it annually hands about $70,000 in state funding over to so-called cyber-charter schools online in which its former students have enrolled. Directors contend that a voucher program robs the district of needed funds to educate all children, and instead favors families with both the desire and ability to have their children attend cyber-charters or other privately operated schools.

Their resolution also claims “there is no consistent evidence to demonstrate … students who utilize vouchers make any better academic progress in non-public or private schools than they did (before) transferring” from pubic schools. That’s intended to counter an argument from proponents who charge public schools are poorly educating students and have, by a lack of performance, created a demand for school choice.

• A signed copy of the Pottsgrove resolution is available for download from the district website, here.
• Watch a video, above, of a press conference last month (April 12, 2011) in Harrisburg conducted by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters and other groups that oppose school vouchers, or see it at the YouTube account of user PSBA video, here.

Related (to education tuition vouchers):

• Pottsgrove Board Officially Opposes School Vouchers
• Local Rep. Quigley Favors Tax Credits In School Choice
• PA Senate School Choice Vote Possible Next Week
• Two Unions Break Ranks, Back State School Vouchers
• Idea: Pottsgrove Might Prosper With Own Charter School
• Choice Amendment Would Remove Vouchers’ 3rd Year
• Teacher Unions Say Budgets, Vouchers Top Their Agendas
• Poll Claims Public Opposes Tuition Vouchers
• Senate Education Chair Preps For Voucher, Choice Battle

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ May 10 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Board Officially Opposes School Vouchers
• In Under 2 Minutes, Pottsgrove Spends A Mil Or So
• ‘I Gotta Go?’ Pottsgrove Holding Summer School (Again)
• Latest Pottsgrove Special Education Costs Questioned
• Six Pottsgrove Coaches + Five Camps = Busy Summer
• Pottsgrove 2012 Travels Include Italy, Latin America
• School Board OKs Personnel Items Affecting 25 Positions
• Does Pottsgrove Have An Administrative Cut-In-Waiting?
• Red And Yellow Items Left On Pottsgrove Budget Table
• Pottsgrove OKs 2.8% Tax Hike In Tentative Budget
• Teachers’ Contract Extension On Pottsgrove Agenda