Three years ago, with great incentive from the federal government, the Massachusetts state legislature raised the cap on charter schools in some underperforming districts across the Commonwealth. The move was welcomed by parents, students, and other concerned citizens in those communities—communities where charters have provided a high quality alternative to the traditional public system.

The first part of this brief presents a detailed description of Rhode Island's Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit (CSTC) program, summarizing the key institutional features of the program. The second part of the brief extracts lessons learned from Rhode Island's tax credit program and assesses the possibility of the adoption of a similar tax credit funded scholarship program in Massachusetts.

The story of charter schooling in Massachusetts is, by and large, the story of an idea that took hold at the local level and was quickly adopted by legislators who saw charter schools as one key to addressing devastating problems with the state's urban school districts. It is also the story of diverse groups of constituents—politicians, businesspeople, parents, and concerned citizens—coming together to create innovative schooling options for the Massachusetts students that need them most.

The school choice movement has suffered a number of severe setbacks during the last decade. California and Michigan voters rejected school voucher ballot initiatives in 2000, state courts in Colorado and Florida ruled that their voucher programs were unconstitutional, and during negotiations over the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush abandoned provisions that would allow students in failing public schools to switch to private schools. Fifteen years after Milwaukee instituted the nation’s first voucher program, fewer than 35,000 non-special education students receive publicly funded school vouchers nationwide.