For a few decades, federal, state and local governments and school districts debated the concept of school vouchers and how it would or should affect individual school taxes.

It really has never been resolved, as the proponents of school vouchers continued to argue that their school tax payments should be designatable to the private school of their choice and the school boards argued that it would create a financial hardship on the district and, in turn, the other taxpayers.

That issue has turned like the leaves on the Western Pennsylvania trees and is now phrased that tuition to charter schools should be taken from the school tax payments they make based on their residence. The argument really goes back even further to private schools, such as the many Roman Catholic schools that often are used by families to educate their children in a stricter or religious manner.

Some people and some churches would get very creative in how they structured tuition payments, so they would appear to qualify for tax reductions. We know of single-income families with as many as eight children that were able to afford to send them all through parochial schools by using creative tax accounting. So, the concept and the realities are not new. Just the technology used has changed the idea slightly.

It remains an issue with a resolution. School taxes are the primary target for raising funds in a school district, and with very little growth in most of the county, the districts are not in a position to continue to lose funding. Mars School District is a very good example of how damaging this can be and what the quality costs to education might be also.

Many programs deemed “nonessential” (there goes that lovely term again) will be sliced from budgets as well as sports and other activities. So, the debate will rage on. This is where the people who we pay six-figure salaries plus expenses to represent us in Harrisburg should be earning those wages and perks instead of filing lawsuits against the other political party or the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Businesses are forced to make decisions on an ROI — or return on investment. It is time the oversized and overpaid legislature of Pennsylvania get something done for the good of all instead of the good of the next reelection campaign. This represents the longest gap they will have before the 2022 campaign begins and the positioning for keeping their jobs.

Maybe they can find a little bit of time to work for all the people of the state and not just the ones who voted for them. We challenge those elected to make some meaningful progress on solving this education crisis before the next election, or to please not ask the voters to rehire them in 2022.

— RV