State’s top auditor says voucher program would devastate Harrisburg School District

• Rachel McDevitt/StateImpact Pennsylvania
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  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

 Rachel McDevitt / WITF

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale speaks at a news conference in Harrisburg on Monday, November 25, 2019.

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s elected fiscal watchdog is warning a proposal in the state capitol could wreck a midstate school district’s already-precarious finances.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said a bill to create a school voucher program in the Harrisburg School District must be stopped.

The district went under state control over the summer after years of financial and academic issues.

The program would give state and local taxpayer funds to district parents, who could put the money toward private school tuition or the cost of attending another public school district.

DePasquale’s office is performing what he calls a “real-time audit” of Harrisburg School District. Auditors are reviewing problems detailed in a state Department of Education-sponsored audit and issuing recommendations on a rolling basis.

DePasquale said the district’s new state-appointed administration is taking the right steps forward, but this bill would derail that progress.

“This bill would bleed out the Harrisburg School District and its taxpayers and could ultimately lead to the district’s collapse,” DePasquale said.

Administrators said Harrisburg School District is now operating with a $2.5 million budget deficit.

They added, based on the number of students in the district already enrolled in private schools, the bill would immediately cost the district $5 million.

Supporters of the bill have downplayed the financial impact on the district, because students who leave will still count toward how much state funding the district gets.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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