Scholarship tax credits are a generous tax credit (beyond the normal deduction) for individuals and corporations to donate to scholarship funds that will then be used to generate scholarships for qualified students in the state. Supporters use test scores and news stories to attack public schools and claim that Scholarship Tax Credits will provide a cure all to what ails public schools while not harming public schools in the slightest.
But is that the real reason? As they said in All the President's Men, follow the money. Groups that support scholarship tax credits tend to fall into two camps:
- Religious organizations with a heavy private school presence like the Catholic Church
- Billionaire funded anti-government organizations posing as concerned local citizens like the Bluegrass Institute, EdChoice Kentucky, Americans for Prosperity Kentucky, and the Pegasus Institute.
EdChoice likes to tout Florida as the gold standard for Scholarship Tax Credits. According to EdChoice:
This maximum scholarship amount is $9,197 in 2019–20, but most students receive awards averaging between $6,775 to $7,250, depending on grade level. Transportation grants for students attending out-of-district public schools are worth up to $750.
What supporters don’t say is that the law provides no cap on tuition. This means that any school desiring to keep its exclusivity can raise its tuition to a point that makes it affordable to middle and upper class students who qualify for the scholarship, but completely out of reach for most poor students. Additionally, since private schools control the rules of attendance and retention, there is no guarantee that children who aren’t wanted won’t be removed from schools at any point in their career.
Finally, as anyone in JCPS can tell you, having choice doesn’t guarantee you a slot. Buildings are only so big. Equipment and resources are limited. If 30,000 kids want to attend Trinity, that isn’t any more feasible than 30,000 attending a certain school in JCPS.
The reality is that in private schools, the school retains the choice, not the parent, especially for kids who don’t have the means to attend.