Michael Sauers

January 9, 2025

Call it tax avoidance. Call it loopholes. Call it corporate welfare. Call it what you like but the essence is that our tax money is being diverted from the general revenue fund to tax avoidance schemes that benefit corporations and wealthy individuals.

In Pennsylvania, we have the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs that provide tax credits to individuals and businesses. These tax credits can be equal to 90% of their Pennsylvania state tax liability.

These tax avoidance schemes divert money away from the general revenue fund where they could be used for state financing responsibilities including education. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania schools are already underfunded and the governor and legislature have been ordered by the Court (2023) to address the unconstitutional paradigm used for funding.

In true asinine fashion, our present governor and legislature have concocted a multi-year (7-10) plan to bring education funding to mere “adequacy”. This is mind numbing stupidity. Why? It is simple. Children are being short-changed, cheated for every year that funding is inadequate. “Adequacy” is an insult. Superiority should be our goal.

Currently, EITC and OSTC are not facing any legal challenges. That could change as many Pennsylvanians are upset with these two tax avoidance schemes. As a member of the PSEA (retired) I am lobbying them to take action. I am doing the same with the Education Law Center and the Public Interest Law Center.

Governor Shapiro does not appear to have a problem with the above tax payer vouchers for private and religious schools. Since their inception in 2001 these programs have provided more than $2 billion in taxpayer support for vouchers. The EITC and OSTC programs already divert close to $500 million in taxpayer dollars that should be going to help close the unconstitutional public school funding problem. These programs are seriously lacking in accountability and oversight regarding student outcomes and anti-discrimination measures.

Politicians, both Republican and Democrat, made the 2025-2026 signing of the latest education funding plan out to be an accomplishment. It is an utter failure and disaster that continues to kick the can down the road at the expense of children. Children are being shortchanged and cheated out of the excellent education they deserve. These same politicians are knee deep in handing out billions in fossil fuel subsidies many of which they are ignorant of because they are baked into tax exemptions.

I’ll follow up on tax exemptions and other fossil fuel subsidies in a future post.