School Choice Saves Families Struggling with Affordability

Jeri Penrod and his family — his wife and their four children, Chloe, Andrew, Clara, and Ananias — faced financial ruin. But a few timely scholarships provided the family not only with a solid education but also with the financial stability they needed to persevere.

But this mobile lifestyle hit a brick wall in 2023. Jeri’s appointment unexpectedly ended, leaving him without a livelihood and his family without a home. At the same time, his wife fell ill, and the medical bills stacked up.

“Everything totally crumbled,” Jeri says. “I withdrew all my retirement savings just to cover our expenses until we found a place to land and everything. So, I’m starting completely over from scratch with my retirement.”

All the while, the Penrod kids still needed schooling. This is when the family discovered Champion Christian School, a small private school with about 100 kids attending its two campuses in Champion and Donegal, Pennsylvania.

Tuition seemed out of reach for the cash-strapped Penrods. But Champion provided ample financial aid to the family—all made possible by Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC).

EITC proved to be a godsend to the Penrod kids.

As parents know, kids often show the effects of instability long before they can put those feelings into words. Jeri noticed significant changes in his oldest daughter, Chloe.

“She was always very social,” he says. “But after the first move, she became much more withdrawn.”

Initially, Chloe struggled at Champion. However, over time, the stability of the new school environment helped her recover. Jeri beams when he talks about Chloe’s considerable healing and renewed confidence. 

His 11-year-old twins, Andrew and Clara, have also shown academic and emotional growth. Andrew, who once struggled with spelling, now regularly earns A’s and B’s, while Clara has become more independent and resilient in her schoolwork. All the while, Ananias, as the youngest, also receives the care and attention he needs at such a tender age.

The scholarships and Champion afforded consistency to the Penrods. Without either, the kids would have bounced around four different school districts, including some listed as “low-achieving” by the state.

“That consistency for the entire family really made a huge impact,” Jeri says. “It helped provide stability where otherwise we wouldn't have had it.”

Not only did Champion become a new home for the Penrod kids, but it also became Jeri’s employer. At Champion, Jeri — a self-proclaimed “jack of all trades, master of none” — does a little bit of everything, from maintaining the school’s building and buses to teaching technology and interdenominational Bible studies to middle and high schoolers.

School choice made all this possible. And the Penrods aren’t alone: Last year, Pennsylvania awarded more than 101,000 scholarships to families seeking educational alternatives.

Now, a new opportunity has emerged. The U.S. Congress recently created the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit to encourage charitable donations to scholarship organizations, potentially bringing in anywhere between $32 million and $967 million in new scholarships to Pennsylvania families. Scholarships recipients—both public and private school students—can use the funds for education-related expenses, such as tuition, tutoring, books, etc.

Unfortunately, these reforms face significant roadblocks. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to gut EITC, making participating in the federal program an urgent priority. Ultimately, they didn’t get the cuts they wanted in the newly passed state budget, but they failed to address the program cap that limits scholarships—the very same one that denied about 70,000 applicants last year. Also, Gov. Josh Shapiro has not yet committed to opting Pennsylvania into the new federal scholarship program, despite its growing popularity.

When it comes to school choice, Jeri doesn’t mince words.

“It saved my family,” he says. “As ludicrous as that might sound, it really did play a major role in saving my family. It allowed my kids to get an education and have consistency where they wouldn't have had it otherwise.”

Education policy debates traditionally focus on student impact — and rightfully so.

But often absent from those conversations is how policies affect the parents. Behind every scholarship are hardworking parents and guardians trying to navigate the real challenges of affordability and to give their kids the best possible future.

Tax-credit scholarships keep students academically challenged and families financially afloat. Pennsylvania should strengthen these opportunities, not limit them, so other families — just like the Penrods — can experience the same academic growth and financial stability they deserve.

Rachel Langan is the senior education policy analyst for the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.