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Pass Voucher Bill Soon

“Sen. Jeffrey Piccola says if voucher bill isn’t passed in 2 weeks, it might get ignored in an election year”
By Jan Murphy
Patriot News
November 30, 2011

Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin County, didn’t say it’s now or never for school vouchers, but he clearly expressed a view that the time to enact a school choice plan in Pennsylvania is now or not until after next year’s election at the earliest.

• Piccola is retiring at the end of this term.

The Senate passed a school reform plan in October that provided for a voucher program, as well as charter school reform and an expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, a program that provides tax credits to companies that donate to private school scholarships or fund innovative public school education programs.

Gov. Tom Corbett supports the direction that the Senate-passed Senate Bill 1 heads but at the time of Senate passage, a spokeswoman said he had some changes he wanted to see made.

Senate Bill 1 now awaits action in the House.

Piccola told a crowd gathered for the Education Policy and Leadership Center’s School Choices Forum that he hears conflicting reports about what, if anything, the House will do with the legislation.

“Having served there for 19 years that’s pretty much par for the course for the House of Representatives,” Piccola said.

House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said House Republicans, who control the chamber, plan to continue discussions on education reform, including Senate Bill 1, on Monday when they return to Harrisburg. As far as the likelihood that the chamber would vote on an education reform plan before recessing for the holidays, he said that is the goal.

Piccola said the next two weeks would prove to be the most important in this latest push to pass a school voucher plan in Pennsylvania.

“These issues generate, as you are probably aware, a great deal of political controversy on both sides. One thing I’ve learned after 35 years in the Legislature, the best way to avoid political controversy is to do nothing and you want to especially do nothing in an election year because that’s when you don’t want political controversy,” Piccola, who is retiring at the end of his term that expires at the end of 2012.

“So I would expect these two weeks to be extremely important, not that anything won’t get done next year but it will be very, very difficult … to get accomplished in this area after Jan. 1,” Piccola said.