Pennsylvania’s Education Tax Credit Scholarships: How EITC Serves Children and Families in the Commonwealth

Key Findings

• Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) are state tax credit programs that give thousands of low- to middle- income students access to high-quality schools of their choice.
• Scholarship organizations awarded 77,670 K–12 scholarships in 2021–22, up more than 15,000 from the previous year. Unfortunately, the state denied over 63,000 student scholarship applications because of arbitrary program caps.
• Students now attend school on an EITC or OSTC scholarship in all 67 counties.
• New state requirements that went into effect beginning July 1, 2024, require that 90 percent or more of scholarship donations fund eligible scholarships, with 10 percent reserved for administration fees; 70 percent of scholarship organizations already meet this requirement.
• Data from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia indicates tax credit scholarships empower low- income families in low-achieving schools with an alternative education for their children. Most families receiving tax credit scholarships earn below the median income level for their respective counties, and the counties with the most low-achieving public schools have the highest number of scholarship recipients.
• The average household income for EITC and OSTC scholarship recipients across the state ranges from $41,463 and $73,100 annually.
• Tax credit scholarship recipients routinely outperform their public school peers, which the case studies manifest. Tax credit students graduate and matriculate to college at higher rates than their public school counterparts and are present at school even while public schools are experiencing unprecedented chronic absenteeism.
• Tax credit scholarship programs fulfill a core need for low- to middle-income students in Pennsylvania. The data in this initial report provides a basis for their expansion alongside other new scholarship programs to improve access to educational opportunity for the children and families of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Download the full report here.