FAQs About Pennsylvania’s EITC and Vouchers for Private and Religious Schools
EXCERPT
Pennsylvania has two programs that give tax money to private schools: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. Each year, EITC and OSTC provide $230 million to private scholarship organizations, or “SOs,” which award tuition vouchers to families whose children attend private and religious schools. Because the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits using tax dollars for religious education, the EITC and OSTC programs are workarounds designed to evade this prohibition. Instead of paying their taxes to the Commonwealth, companies direct their tax payments to an EITC or OSTC “scholarship” organization.
