Last Friday, CBS News, XXL, and Complex thrusted national attention on Senate Bill 757’s controversial school voucher program called PASS–Pennsylvania Award for Student Success. Those publications, amongst others, regurgitated Jay Z-owned Roc Nation’s deceptively worded press release that announced the agency’s lead role in building community support for the bill. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Pennsylvania chapter rallied on Monday in front of Pennsylvania’s State Capitol to oppose the legislation, while people across the country watched closely for fear of similar moves in their own states.
Senate Bill 757 is a mostly right-wing-supported bill intended to derail competing House Bill 2370, which takes measures to address inequities in school funding. AFT Pennsylvania’s president Arthur Steinberg panned the strategic timing of Roc Nation’s last-minute push on behalf of PASS’s billionaire backers, saying state lawmakers are “on the precipice of finally fixing our education system” with HB 2370 which ensures the state’s public school systems are fairly and fully funded.
House Bill 2370 is a sensible step towards funding equity in Pennsylvania Schools
HB 2370, as explained in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, is a comprehensive education funding bill that would provide direct and sustainable financial support to poorer school districts across Pennsylvania. The house bill was drafted to remedy a Commonwealth Court ruling that state funding for Pennsylvania’s public schools was inadequate, unconstitutional, and must be remedied.
The bill would immediately save the state’s school districts about $530 million per year by capping cyber charter school tuition at $ 8,000 per student. It would create $5.1 billion in new state funding over the next seven years to “boost the per-student spending of 371 school districts to match that of the state’s most successful school districts.” It would also divide an additional $200 million per year amongst all 500 school districts using the new “adequacy formula.” Lastly, the bill would provide tax relief to districts with the highest property tax rates.
How Roc Nation is helping reform school funding to benefit the wealthy
It would be completely reasonable to think Roc Nation “spearheading an educational campaign” that ostensibly helps students “secure about $300 million in scholarships” for K-12 education is a good thing, especially since these efforts were announced through Roc Nation’s philanthropic arm, We Are Team Roc. Jay Z — using his wealth and fame to empower poor Black and Hispanic students — is making a difference in the community.
But the truth is more straightforward: Conservative activists engaged Jay Z vis-à-vis Roc Nation to lead a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign (website, social media, and petition) aimed at defunding Pennsylvania’s public schools and resisting court-mandated funding reform of Pennsylvania’s public schools. Roc Nation is offering poor Philadelphians a free meal to “dine and learn” in exchange for their signatures.
Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s right-wing think tank, says PASS offers so-called Lifeline Scholarships to “any student assigned to a school ranked in the bottom 15 percent of performance.” The think tank asserts SB 757 would improve educational outcomes by providing families with up to $10,000 per student ($15,000 for special needs). Yet, the average private school tuition is $12,223 per year, with about 65% of the schools charging more than $5,000 in annual tuition. It is not clear how the roughly 80% of poor and radicalized students from qualifying schools would be able to make up the balance.
It’s true that PASS would not be funded by school districts, as funding would come from taxpayers via the state treasury. However, that fact obscures the truth that a decrease in student attendance would lead to less money going to public school districts. Accordingly, the bill would leave the state without a plan to fix its inequitable funding formula. After Roc Nation announced its involvement with PASS, Jay Z’s association with Jeffrey Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man, became an instant meme.
Who is Jeffrey Yass?
Jeffrey Yass, founder of Susquehanna International Holdings, is a self-described Libertarian worth an estimated $27 billion and is reportedly the largest single donor in the 2024 election cycle so far. ProPublica’s story on Yass gives a detailed look into his tax avoidance strategies, like making offsetting trades on the same stocks to show bigger losses. Some of these unscrupulous (and likely illicit) tactics have netted him a least $1 billion in tax savings; others have turned into protracted legal battles resulting in $121 million in back taxes in 2019.
CNBC outlined the $10s of millions Yass has given to PACs, Super PACS, and think tanks — nearly $7 million just to Cato Institute, where he’s vice chairman of the Board. Responsible Statecraft discusses his financial and political support of war in the Middle East. New York Times investigates his role in pushing Israel’s Knesset to pass laws so far to the right that its Supreme Court would have limited capacity to review or hold accountable laws or executive actions by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Yass’ big thing is “school choice.” Texas Tribune and Open Secrets have reported on his state-level involvement to pass voucher bills in Texas which predates his campaigns in Pennsylvania. He set a Texas record $6 million to voucher advocate Governor Greg Abbott while endorsing primary challengers to anti-voucher House Republicans. Those Republicans and their Democrat counterparts know the truth about “school choice” — vouchers are a gift from taxpayers to private institutions.
A study from the National Coalition for Public Education suggests that the negative impact vouchers have on students who switch from public to private schools is “as harmful as natural disasters.” With the abundance of studies and resources that show public schools perform better with greater public investment, Jay Z and Roc Nation’s contributions seem even more questionable.
Is this all just a hustle?
The Village Voice called Jay Z a sellout for his role in reshaping Brooklyn, though it's not clear that he thinks "selling out" is a bad thing. Jay once encouraged his Black audience to “gentrify your own hood." Gentrification, like that which followed the Brooklyn Yards development, is a process that targets distressed areas for investment opportunities. A report by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests housing values increase by $20 with each $1 of increased state aid per pupil, and decreased spending could drive down property values and lead to organized abandonment. If Jay Z and his partners are looking for more development deals in economically depressed areas, school vouchers could be an accelerant.
