On Friday, July 8, 2022, Governor Wolf signed PA’s 2022-2023 fiscal budget, which includes a $125 million increase to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC), Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC), and similar programs—the biggest ever in the initiative’s history. This includes:
- An $88 million increase for EITC K-12 Scholarships (from $175 million to $263 million) – a 50% increase. This is the largest increase in the program’s history; more than double last year’s $40 million increase.
- A $15 million increase in OSTC K-12 scholarships (from $50 to $65 million) – a 30% increase.
The Commonwealth Foundation estimates that this increase will result in an estimated 31,000 additional K-12 students with scholarships to the school of their choice, while raising average scholarship amounts.
What does this mean for you?
- Renewing Corporations: For any renewing corporation that applied for increases in May of 2022, there is a high likelihood of being approved for additional credits. We encourage all partners to begin planning how they plan to invest!
- New EITC Applicants: Most new applications submitted in July will also have a greater chance of approval. CSFP suggests that applicants build contact lists and plan for how they will give in the fall.
- Special Purpose Entity Members: If the entity applied for new or increased funds, we recommend that LLC managers begin to plan for how they will fulfill increased capacity this year
- Newly Interested Individual or Corporate Supporters: For donors that do not participate in the EITC/OSTC program, there will be more ways to join in 2022 by participating in SPEs! We recommend reaching out to us to learn more and start having conversations.
We know that tax credit scholarships positively impact students every year.
- 3 in 4 CSFP students live in the city’s lowest performing public school neighborhoods and the average household income for CSFP families is $40,000 annually. Tax credit scholarships in Philadelphia benefit under-resourced students who would otherwise attend a low performing school.
- Approximately 1 in 4Philadelphia K–8th grade private school students receive CSFP scholarships, meaning that a CSFP scholarship makes safe, quality education affordable.
- In the 2021-2022 School Year, nearly 5,500 students received a CSFP scholarship, and with this increase, we can serve even more students.
We are thrilled to hear this news, which means this year there will be more ways to transform tax dollars through the help of CSFP. We will continue to communicate with our supporters to ensure that they have updated information and resources to best leverage these new funds.
