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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	November 1, 2021 10:34 AM
From:	Senator Scott Martin
To:	All Senate members
Subject:	Ensuring Access to and Properly Leveraging Critical Educational Assistance Programs

In the near future, I will be introducing legislation to protect and improve access for lower income students who participate in the Commonwealth’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some families who received federal relief dollars could be pushed over the household income limit making them ineligible for EITC or OSTC programs. To address this unintended consequence, my legislation would revise the current definition of household income to explicitly state that payments received from any governmental agency as a result of the pandemic cannot be included in calculating one’s household income when determining eligibility. In addition, my legislation would revise the current definition of “school-related fees” under the context of the EITC and OSTC programs to allow for the use of program dollars for dual enrollment. Dual enrollment courses offered to secondary education students are known to be more affordable and can put students on a path to potentially graduate early from their post-secondary training, which has the potential to save them thousands of dollars in tuition and interest from student loan debt. Please consider joining me in cosponsoring these pieces of legislation.

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Document #1

Description:	The first piece of legislation will revise the current household income definition to exclude COVID-19 related payments from calculating EITC/OSTC eligibility.

Document #2

Description:	The second piece of legislation will allow for EITC/OSTC dollars to be utilized for dual enrollment program payments.