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HARRISBURG (May 21, 2018) – Dolores McCracken, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, issued the following statement today related to the state Senate Education Committee’s plans to schedule Senate Bill 2, a tuition voucher plan that could siphon more than $500 million in state funds from Pennsylvania’s public schools, for a vote on May 22.

“Some state senators are making another run at passing a tuition voucher scheme that will be a disaster for public education. There’s absolutely no reason to vote on a bill that could cut more than $500 million from school districts that need state funding the most.

“For many of these school districts, these cuts are larger than the historic losses they and their students suffered when the General Assembly cut nearly $1 billion in public school funding in 2011.

“Pennsylvania’s students and taxpayers just can’t afford this kind of ill-conceived and senseless legislation. Most lawmakers know better, and that’s why bills like this haven’t ever become law – even though some legislators have tried to pass them for decades.

“Vouchers don’t help students learn, they drain money from public schools, and they don’t hold private schools accountable for how they would spend the money.

“I encourage state senators to let their colleagues on the Senate Education Committee know that this bill should not come up for a vote, and to oppose it if it does. Pennsylvania’s public school students deserve better.”

McCracken is a paraprofessional in the Council Rock School District. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents approximately 181,000 future, active and retired teachers and school employees, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.