Shannon Mitchell will never forget the first words from her nonverbal eight-year-old daughter, Brianna. “Hi, mama,” Briana said after getting off the bus on her first day at her new school. “I love you.”
Before this precious moment, Brianna languished at her Philadelphia district school for several years. Brianna — who was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old — needed extra support and resources, such as speech therapy.
But her school couldn’t provide these much-needed services. Instead, her teacher often resorted to sending her to the back of the classroom to play with toys. When Shannon visited the classroom, she noticed Brianna playing by herself while two teacher aides scrolled on their phones.
“Now, I’m pissed,” said Shannon when she recalled this frustrating scene. As a result, Shannon spent the better part of the year fighting with the School District to get her daughter the help she so desperately needed.
This wasn’t Shannon’s first confrontation with the District. Her older son, Caleb, is also a special needs student who has struggled to find the support he needed in the Philadelphia schools. It got so bad that Shannon sued the District.
After a months-long battle with the district, Shannon was able to transfer Brianna to a better-equipped private school. In the end, the School District paid for Brianna’s tuition, but not without putting up a fight.
Sadly, the Mitchells’ story isn’t unique. If a district school cannot adequately implement a student’s individualized education program, it may recommend that the student transfer to an approved private school. Moreover, the District can be on the hook to pay that student’s tuition.
PA public schools spend a lot of money to transfer special education students to better-equipped private schools, according to a new analysis by the Commonwealth Foundation. During the 2023-24 school year, PA public schools spent more than $370 million to outsource special education to nonpublic schools for nearly 8,500 students — about $44,000 per student. The School District of Philadelphia alone spent $35 million to outsource the education of 681 special needs students in non-district schools — about $51,000 per student.
This option isn’t well known. Only 3 percent of PA special education students transferred from public schools to private schools.
There’s a reason for this low number: Getting that funding and support is an uphill battle. Special education students often wait months, if not years, to receive the services they are legally entitled to. Too often, parents like Shannon must sue the District.
The public school system cannot meet the needs of all its students, and it is already relying on private schools to fill in the gaps. What’s stopping PA from extending the same courtesy to all students? It’s time to bring school choice out of the shadows and provide all PA kids with the resources they need to flourish.
However, litigation requires resources that many families lack. The process is arduous and time consuming. Often, lawyers get involved to determine the best educational environment for the student. Ultimately, affluent families are more likely to file suit compared to lower income households.
As usual, higher income families can enjoy the benefits of school choice. Wealthy families can afford homes in the wealthier communities that predominantly house blue-ribbon public schools. And if those top-tier public schools don’t meet their needs, they are more likely to afford private school tuition.
Meanwhile, lower income households remain stuck in the worst performing schools without a genuine off-ramp to better alternatives. And the barrier to entry — namely, tuition at a private school — is cost-prohibitive for families on fixed incomes.
This is why educational choice matters — not just as a privilege for the wealthy but as an opportunity for all students.
Indeed, PA offers some scholarships to partially meet this need. The Commonwealth’s tax credit scholarship programs — the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs — provide more than 80,000 scholarships per year to K-12 students seeking nonpublic educational alternatives
But EITC and OSTC also deny about 80,000 applications — mainly due to budget caps. Clearly, demand has outpaced supply.
The newly minted state budget added $50 million to the Economically Disadvantaged Schools program, which targets EITC scholarships for students in marginalized communities. Even with this generous increase, PA will be able to provide an additional 10,000 scholarships — well short of the unmet need of the tens of thousands of Pennsylvania kids trying to escape their district schools.
The public school system cannot meet the needs of all its students, and it is already relying on private schools to fill in the gaps.
What’s stopping PA from extending the same courtesy to all students? It’s time to bring school choice out of the shadows and provide all PA kids with the resources they need to flourish.
“These kids deserve a chance,” said Shannon during a legislative committee hearing. “And they deserve to have a classroom where they can walk in, and they can be proud of what they’re doing.”
And the best way to give these kids a chance is to first give them a choice.
Rachel Langan is the Senior Education Policy Analyst of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.
The Citizen welcomes guest commentary from community members who represent that it is their own work and their own opinion based on true facts that they know firsthand.
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