Friends and Neighbors,
Recently, students and families at Blessed Sacrament School received heartbreaking news: this academic year will be its last. The Erie Catholic School System (ECSS) announced its closure, marking the end of more than 85 years of dedicated education in our community.
Understandably, many are looking for someone to blame. While ECSS is the closest target, the reality is more complex.
Blessed Sacrament’s declining enrollment mirrors a statewide trend. Schools both public and private are grappling with fewer students, a consequence of Pennsylvania’s lower birth rate since 2008. Compounding this issue, Erie’s population has been shrinking due to continued outmigration.
As your state senator, I have been a steadfast advocate for education—all forms of education. No one has fought harder than I have to ensure our students have access to quality learning opportunities. Since I took office, funding for the Erie School District has increased by $100 million annually. I am proud of that achievement, and I will continue fighting for resources that strengthen our public schools. But I also believe that a little competition and offering parents a choice is a good thing. All industries thrive when there is competition, and education should be no different.
Public schools have received record funding despite declining enrollment. Since 2019-2020, Pennsylvania’s K-12 public schools have lost 39,000 students, yet education spending continues to rise. This year, the state allocated $16.8 billion, nearly $22,000 per student. For next year’s budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed yet another increase for public schools. But for private school students, like those at Blessed Sacrament, he offered no such support.
The Erie Catholic School System participates in Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) scholarship program, which helps students attend non-public schools. Businesses and individuals passionate about education contribute to scholarship organizations and receive tax credits in return. Unfortunately, the EITC program is arbitrarily capped, leading to thousands of denied applications each year for no reason other than politics. In the 2021-22 academic year alone, more than 63,000 applications were turned away.
Lifting this cap would enable more students to benefit from EITC, increasing enrollment and tuition revenue for schools like Blessed Sacrament. I proudly voted in the Senate to expand the program, despite Gov. Shapiro’s resistance to school choice. Yet, even with the expansion, the cap remains.
A potentially even greater solution is the Lifeline Scholarship Program, also known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) program. This initiative would provide educational savings accounts to students assigned to low-performing public schools, allowing them to attend private schools that better suit their needs. To qualify, students must live in a household with an income below 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which is currently $75,000 for a family of four.
During his campaign, Gov. Shapiro voiced support for Lifeline Scholarships, declaring that “every child of God” deserves access to a quality education. However, when a $100 million Lifeline Scholarship program passed both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House, Shapiro shockingly reneged on his promise, using a line-item veto to kill the program.
Erie County is home to multiple low-performing schools, and many students who could have benefited from Lifeline Scholarships and possibly attended Blessed Sacrament now cannot. If even a couple of hundred more students in the public system had the choice to attend private schools with help from their tax dollars, smaller schools across the state, including Blessed Sacrament, would have had a fighting chance.
There is no single reason for Blessed Sacrament’s closure, just as there is no one-size-fits-all educational environment for every student. But had Gov. Shapiro followed through on his commitment to school choice, Blessed Sacrament could have seen increased enrollment and tuition revenue, possibly avoiding closure.
For the families who consider Blessed Sacrament their home, the loss is devastating. It didn’t have to be this way.
Sincerely,
Dan Laughlin
State Senator
49th Senatorial District