On Wednesday, summer weather prevailed upon the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, where hundreds of nonpublic school children from across the Keystone State joined together for the 17th annual celebration of the EITC - Education Improvement Tax Credit - program. Pennsylvania's two scholarship tax credit programs currently award a total of $175 million in tax credits, providing scholarships to more than 50,000 students across the Commonwealth.
Rabbi Ariel Sadwin with Otto Banks, executive director of Reach Foundation, the EITC event sponsor
Over 200 Jewish day school students representing 13 schools from across the state, traveled to Harrisburg to participate in the celebration and for an advocacy mission arranged by Teach PA, a project of the Orthodox Union.
(L-R_) Rabbi Yosef Guttman, Yeshiva Bais Moshe,Scranton; Rabbi Pinchos Lando,Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia;Rabbi Ariel Sadwin; Rabbi Dovid Rosenberg, Scranton Hebrew Day School; Elliott Holtz, Foundation for Jewish Day Schools of Greater Philadelphia; Rabbi Yosef Prupas, Philadelphia Community Kollel and Rabbi Sholom Aryeh Greenfield, Scranton Hebrew Day School
Immediately following the EITC event, PA CAPE (Pennsylvania state chapter of the Council for American Private Education) held its annual awards luncheon. A distinguished group of nonpublic school teachers and administrators from across Pennsylvania were recognized for their excellence in several categories. Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Agudath Israel's Mid-Atlantic director and a founding member of PA CAPE participated in both events.