AFT Pennsylvania General Counsel Irwin Aronson Remarks at No Vouchers Rally as prepared—June 10, 2024
I am Irwin Aronson. I join you today as Counsel to AFT Pennsylvania, a state federation representing 36,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, school staff, higher education faculty and staff, and state workers in 64 local unions, I have the pleasure of counting among our membership the dedicated and committed educators from Pennsylvania’s two largest school districts, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. On behalf of AFT Pennsylvania President, Arthur Steinberg, Secretary/Treasurer, LeShawna Coleman, Our Executive Board and, most importantly, the members we represent, we thank you for inviting us to join you today. Of far greater importance than that pedigree is the elegantly simple fact that I am with you today because I am the product of an extraordinary PUBLIC EDUCATION, provided by an exceptional Pittsburgh Public School system, delivered by committed professional educators who got up off their knees and demanded fair treatment for their students, their families and themselves ... the dedicated union members of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.
I want to begin by recognizing, because Speaker Joanna McClinton has joined us this afternoon, that House Democrats are taking a step today that I have not seen in my nearly 50 years of advocacy here in Harrisburg—they are acting to codify long-term investment in public education, in our children and grandchildren, and close the $5.4 billion gap between wealthy districts and poorer districts over the course of the next seven years. This is an extraordinary first step toward ensuring our education funding system passes constitutional muster; and Madame Speaker, thank you for guiding the People’s House to compliance with a plain judicial order.
As the speakers before me make clear, right now is the time to invest more in our public school district led schools, not less. And despite what those who are pushing vouchers say, there is literally no mathematically sound way to send money to private and religious institutions without harming public school districts’ budgets; it is a sham.
Vouchers cost taxpayers even more money because they require funding to support a separate education system operated for private gain. Vouchers are currently bankrupting Arizona. Arizona’s general fund pays out more for vouchers than it does to pay for a public-school education. The per pupil allocation is $900 less for public high school students than for students whose education is funded through a taxpayer financed private education voucher.
Overall, Arizona’s voucher program is projected to cost $950 million next year, $320 million of which is unbudgeted!
Then, there’s the lack of accountability for vouchers. Most private schools, even those receiving taxpayer-funded voucher money, do not have to meet standards for curriculum, testing, teacher qualifications, academic accomplishment or school quality, including here in Pennsylvania where private schools that enroll students under a state tax-credit, a voucher program by other named, are not required to provide information on student achievement, testing or demographics.
Vouchers do not improve student achievement and, in many states, have led to a decline in achievement. Recent studies of the Louisiana, Indiana, and Ohio voucher programs have demonstrated that students who received taxpayer funded vouchers experience worse academic outcomes than their peers. In addition, studies of long-standing voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and the District of Columbia found that students who received vouchers showed no improvement in reading or math over those not funded with vouchers.
Here in Pennsylvania, despite more than $2 billion flowing through EITC/OSTC tax diversion programs since their inception, there is zero evidence that private or religious school vouchers contribute to improved educational achievement in our Commonwealth.
But that’s not all ... Private school vouchers foster segregation. In Arizona, the wealthiest students received most of the money in the tuition tax credit program, leading to increased economic segregation. The Department of Justice was compelled to sue the state of Louisiana because its voucher program is believed to have violated desegregation orders.
Finally, private school vouchers, whether in Arizona, Florida or right here in Pennsylvania, for the vast majority of students using a voucher were not going to a public school, the year before they started accessing the taxpayer funded voucher. Meaning that in a Commonwealth where the typical cost of private school tuition is around $20,000 a year, the students taking advantage of vouchers were born to well-off or wealthy families to begin with, completely dismantling the argument that these programs are to help low-income families in struggling schools.
Our Union, representing educators, are among the experts in teaching children and in developing our next generation of citizens. We also believe that every child in our Commonwealth deserves a shot at life through a quality, public, free education, just as many of you had and just as I had. And what we know is that aside from draining funds from our schools, vouchers don’t work.
They just don’t work.
Thank you.