New PA Budget
Benefits Jewish
Day Schools
Selah Maya Zighelboim | JE Staff
F or families at Kohelet Yeshiva, scholarships obtained through the
Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program — the main
revenue source for the school’s scholarships — are “life-changing,”
Kohelet Yeshiva Executive Director Stuart Gasner said.

“I don’t even know what they would do” without the aid, he said.

“Their children wouldn’t even be able to attend this institution.

Families recognize that, without this generous program and without
the school being able to offer scholarships through the generosity of
our community, there’s no way that a lot of our families would even
consider our school.”
Forty percent of Pennsylvania Jewish day school students qual-
ify and receive scholarships through the EITC or the Opportunity
Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs.

These programs incentivize businesses to donate to approved school
scholarship funds, such as the Foundation for Jewish Day Schools at
the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, to receive a tax credit.

Families can then apply and, based on eligibility and the scholarship
Students rally in support of EITC and the OSTC programs, as well as for
additional security and health funding at nonpublic schools.

Photo provided
monies’ availability, receive scholarships to attend nonpublic schools.

The 2018-2019 Pennsylvania budget increases the EITC program by
$25 million, for a total of $160 million and continues funding the OSTC
program at $50 million.

“We see numbers go down and we see numbers go up, and we see
regulatory changes that hurt low- and middle-income families, and
then some years it is helpful,” said Arielle Frankston-Morris, director
of Teach PA, a part of the Orthodox Union’s Teach Advocacy Network.

“Thankfully, this was a year that really helped Jewish education.”
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