Here are a few thoughts about the latest News & Observer editorial objecting to a proposed corporate tax credit bill that would provide private school scholarships to low-income families:
– N&O editors write that private schools are “being shown the love,” but it is actually low-income families that are being shown the love.
– They also remark that claims of taxpayer savings should be “evaluated with great care.” This has been done. There are numerous studies that identify cost savings from existing tax credit scholarship programs.
– Why aren’t superintendents and school board members “jumping up and down with glee?” Low-income students bring big money to school districts. For example, each low-income student brings, at minimum, an additional $1,180.56 in federal and $357.64 in state funds on top of the $4,260 or so in base funding. Districts may also receive per-student allotments of $240.55 in Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Funding and $291.47 in low-wealthy county funds.
– According to the current version of the bill, between July and December 2012, the total amount of tax credits allowable may not exceed $2 million. If scholarship granting organizations distributed 100 percent of the funding and all students received $4,000 scholarships, then 500 students would be served by the program. In a state with nearly 1.5 million public school students, the bill would affect, at most, approximately 0.03 percent of the public school population. The tax credit increases to $40 million beginning on January 1, 2013. The fully implemented scholarship program outlined in the bill, which would provide $4,000 scholarships to 10,000 children, would move only 0.6 percent of the current public school population to non-public schools.
