Supporters Lobby for School-Choice Bill

Junior Courtney Scheingraber said she felt as if she was "just my student number" during her elementary and middle school years in public school. That's when she decided to switch to Lancaster Catholic High School for her freshman year. "It was a completely different experience," Scheingraber said at a news conference on state Senate Bill 1 at Resurrection Catholic School on Thursday afternoon.

"I wanted to go to school. I wanted to get an education," she said. "I actually felt motivated and had a desire to do well." Scheingraber said that at Lancaster Catholic she feels like a "real person." Her teachers, and even the administrators, all know her by name, she said.

She's very active in the school, participating in programs such as student council, Model UN and National Honor Society. She also is a dance team member and marching band manager — all things "I couldn't have done in my previous school," she said.

But Scheingraber couldn't have attended Lancaster Catholic, she said, without financial support from scholarships and grants.

That's where S.B. 1 comes into play.

Co-sponsored by state Sen. Lloyd K. Smucker, a West Lampeter Republican, it would increase the Educational Improvement Tax Credit scholarship program to $100 million and provide Opportunity Scholarship Grants — better known as vouchers — to low-income students for tuition at any school their parents choose.

The school voucher system would be phased in over three years to families who normally would receive free or reduced lunches in the public schools. A family of four may have an income of only $28,600, Smucker said.

By year four, the vouchers would be extended to middle-income families, too.

Smucker said school vouchers are "not a magic bullet." But he believes all types of educational systems — public, private, parochial, home-school, cyber and charter — have merit for individual students. "All avenues of education should be supported," he said. Smucker himself has experience with both parochial and public school education. He is a graduate of Lancaster Mennonite High School, and his children attend public school in the Lampeter-Strasburg district. He said he's had a "great experience" in both venues.

As a businessperson, Smucker said you solve problems by making the product better, not by shutting down the competition.

"Competition drives up quality service, and education shouldn't be exempt," he said.

In response to those who believe school vouchers will harm public education funding, Smucker said public schools still will keep their local and federal reimbursements. Only the state portion for qualified children would go to parents.

Because the public school would no longer have to educate that child, its average revenue per student actually goes up, Smucker said.

Smucker also believes the Senate bill is constitutional and doesn't violate separation of church and state.

"We have had constitutional authorities look at it and assure us it is constitutional," he said. It directs money from the school district to the parents, who then have a choice of any type of school, not just parochial, he said.

Livia Riley, the first lay superintendent of schools of the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, said every parent should have the right to choose where their child is educated. It is, however, the financial responsibility that often precludes the ability of parents to send their children to parochial school, she said.

Throughout the 15-county diocese, there are 12,000 students attending Catholic schools, and next year there will be space to add 4,000 more, Riley said.

Currently, there are 700 students attending Catholic schools in Lancaster County — all because of the EITC, Riley said. Senate Bill 1 will extend that opportunity to 1,000 more students, she said.

"There is a child for every school and a school for every child," said Riley, who began her career in education at the former St. Anthony's Catholic School in Lancaster and later was principal at St. Anne Catholic School.

Parochial schools, unlike public schools, provide an opportunity to "educate the entire child — academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually," Riley said.

Catholic schools, she said, are child-focused and spirit-driven.

"Every child is a gift of God. Like Courtney, our children are valued, and you don't get lost in the shuffle," Riley said. "Smaller populations are more advantageous to children."

There is still time to weigh in with your legislators on school choice, Smucker said, because he doesn't believe a vote by the Senate will take place until at least fall, owing to the more urgent matter of the state budget.