A new Commonwealth Foundation report praises Pennsylvania’s tax credit scholarship programs, which create private-school vouchers funded through tax-credited donations. The report argues for the programs’ expansion to meet increasing demand. However, this report has at least three major shortcomings. It trivializes the amount of spending on the programs, and it relies on five cherry-picked “case studies” with limited descriptive information, disallowing the causal inference underpinning the report’s assertion that private schools provide better services at bargain prices. Finally, the argument that such programs yield substantial long-run economic benefits lacks a credible foundation. In sum, the report is of little use to policymakers. It essentially pushes them to ask the wrong questions and ignore the right ones when allocating significant sums of taxpayer dollars.

Suggested Citation: Baker, B.D. (2024). NEPC review: Pennsylvania’s education tax credit scholarships: How EITC serves children and families in the commonwealth. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/review/tax-credits