By Jason Russell
Washington Examiner
September 21, 2015
More than 200,000 students benefit from education tax credit scholarships in 16 states.
Education tax credits allow individuals or businesses to claim a tax credit in exchange for donations to scholarship organizations. The organizations then use the donations to fund scholarships for eligible students to attend participating private schools.
The programs are good for parents and state budgets.
“In states where these programs have been implemented well, policymakers have noted reductions in state expenditures and huge growth of private investments in K-12 education.” Kara Kerwin, president of the Center for Education Reform, wrote in the center’s second annual rankings of education tax credit laws. “Another significant benefit of these scholarship programs is that they shift the power of choosing a school from bureaucrats to parents.”
The 16 states with education tax credits vary in terms of the amount of freedom they give parents. Arizona has the best education tax credit in the country, followed by Florida, the center’s report says. Those two states are the only ones to receive an A grade in their rankings. Kansas has the worst law and is the only one of the 16 states to get an F grade.
Arizona and Florida get high marks for having high levels of participation, proportional to the number of public school students in the state. More than a third of students benefiting from education tax credit scholarships nationwide are in Florida. Wide eligibility for the scholarships also helps in the rankings, as does wide eligibility for those wishing to claim the tax credit for their donations.
Montana and Nevada passed education tax credits earlier this year, so it will be hard to rank their laws until more is known about how many students participate.
Eight of the 16 states with the tax credit programs adopted them in the past three years.