Highmark Inc. subsidiaries to give $650,000 for education in Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH (March 23, 2021) — Students from across the Commonwealth will benefit from $650,000 in grants that will be awarded to 43 organizations. The grants are through Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs. Highmark subsidiaries that will be funding the grants are Highmark Health, HM Insurance Group and United Concordia Dental.

Of the $650,000, $15,000 will go toward educational improvement, $170,000 for scholarship programs, $170,000 for Pennsylvania's Opportunity Scholarship Organizations and $295,000 for pre-K programming. The EITC and OSTC programs are available to Pennsylvania businesses paying any one of six specific state taxes and applying for participation to the program's administrator, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Highmark companies have provided over $18.6 million dollars to support education through the EITC and OSTC programs since 2006. Highmark and its subsidiaries paid $29 million in Pennsylvania taxes in 2020, including $19 million in county and municipal taxes.

“Highmark companies are committed to education in their communities because we know that knowledge is power. Empowering our young people to make healthy choices for their future is a benefit to us all,” said Dan Onorato, executive vice president, Highmark Health. “We are proud to continue our support of Pennsylvania's EITC and OSTC programs to ensure our students and their families are healthy and have adequate access to educational resources.”