June 30, 2011 10:57AM # School Choice Murder-Suicide in Pennsylvania By [Adam B. Schaeffer](https://www.cato.org/people/adam-b-schaeffer) --- SHARE A huge school choice opportunity has been lost for the moment in Pennsylvania. But that lost opportunity is *[not the voucher program](http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_744434.html)* that has drawn so much attention. The [political conflagration ](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/us/politics/29teaparty.html?_r=1)touched off by the push for a targeted, failing-schools voucher program incinerated along with it a massive expansion of an existing, popular, successful, bipartisan-supported, and better program; the [Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC)](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13125). The House passed this expansion of credit program by a [massive margin](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13125). And when I say “massive,” I mean [96 percent in favor to 4 percent opposed](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13125). Unfortunately, a stand-alone credit bill was not considered in the Senate, and the expansion fell by the wayside as the voucher battle raged. In the next session, it would be good policy and politics to consider vouchers and credits separately. They are substantively different means of fostering choice, and the public deserves a clear debate and vote on both policies in separate bills. The Educational Improvement Tax Credit program is vastly [superior](../education-%E2%80%9Csavings%E2%80%9D-accounts-have-same-problems-as-regular-vouchers/) to all of the voucher bills. [Vouchers](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13125) are open to credible legal challenges, afford no accountability directly to taxpayers, and government money brings stifling government [regulations](https://www.cato.org/report-of-new-voucher-bill-in-pa-raises-regulatory-red-flags/). Furthermore, giving vouchers only to kids in or around “failing schools” won’t produce a dynamic market because there is an ambiguous, limited, and potentially shifting customer base. A failing-schools voucher program is a terrible policy design. The EITC should not be legislatively handcuffed to vouchers. Vouchers are an inferior policy and a proven political liability. For once the popular, politically smart, most principled, and most effective thing to do are all the same; drop the voucher drama and expand the education tax credit program. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).