School boards would get new powers to convert regular public schools to charters, and it would be easier to appeal rejected charter applications. It would set new academic and fiscal standards.
The Educational Improvement Tax Credit program would increase to $100 million, from $75 million, with more increases in future years.
"This is about [making] a public-policy statement about a responsibility the state has to students trapped in unsafe and underperforming schools," Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Phila.) said of the voucher proposal.
Replied State Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery): "To help a small percentage of kids, we're going to be hurting badly the overwhelming majority of kids" by using state education dollars to pay for vouchers.
Tuesday's Senate Education Committee vote was 9-2, with Williams and Andrew Dinniman joining seven Republicans. Democrats Jim Ferlo (D., Allegheny) and Leach voted no.
Despite Republican control of the governor's office, the Senate and the House, the new proposal's fate is uncertain. House Republican leaders have been lukewarm about many aspects of the plan; similar proposals introduced individually earlier this year went nowhere.
A list of the 143 schools where students would be eligible for vouchers, released Tuesday, includes 88 Philadelphia schools, six schools in Delaware County's Chester Upland district, and three in Delaware County's William Penn district. Those schools scored in the bottom 5 percent statewide on math and reading tests.
In 2018-19, the low-achieving list would expand to cover any school where 50 percent or fewer of students met state standards on tests.
