Editorial Staff

New Study Provides Toolkit for Crafting Education Tax-Credit Scholarship Programs

/in , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Comes on the heels of U.S. Supreme Court striking down “Anti-Aid” or “Blaine” Amendments to Massachusetts and other state constitutions that prohibited use of public funds for private schools

Media coverage of the report in The 74: With DeVos Out, Movement for Private School Choice Shifts to State Legislatures

BOSTON – In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key impediment to private school choice, Pioneer Institute has published a toolkit for designing tax-credit scholarship (TCS) programs.

DOWNLOAD TOOLKIT

Under these programs, individual and corporate taxpayers receive tax credits for contributions to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) that fund students attending schools other than their assigned district school.  The SGOs are non-profits registered under the state TCS program.

Get Updates on Our School Choice Research

“Policymakers should craft TCS programs to maximize the incentives for taxpayers to contribute to SGOs, the number of families that can benefit from the scholarships and the freedom and flexibility SGOs have to serve those families,” said Jason Bedrick, author of “Earning Full Credit: A Toolkit for Designing Tax-Credit Scholarship Policies.”

Tax-credit scholarships are the most common private-school choice program.  There are currently 23 programs in 18 states and Utah enacted a 24th program earlier this year.

Number of tax-credit scholarships granted by state

The programs are popular among parents and taxpayers.  In a 2018 survey of more than 14,000 scholarship families in Florida, 92 percent expressed satisfaction with the program and about 90 percent were satisfied with the school their child attended using a scholarship.  According to the 2020 Education Next survey, 57 percent of Americans support TCS policies.  Support is even higher among parents (61 percent) and Americans who are Black (68 percent) and Hispanic (70 percent).  According to EdChoice’s 2020 “Schooling in America” survey, 69 percent of the general public supported TCS policies.

Programs can be revenue neutral or even produce savings for the state if the value of tax credits is less than the money saved in school districts that no longer educate students taking advantage of tax-credit scholarships.

Bedrick makes a number of recommendations for policymakers crafting TCS programs.  He urges states to make all children eligible for the scholarships but to prioritize those who are most in need.  Around two thirds of current programs impose income-based eligibility restrictions.

Tax credits should be as close to 100 percent as possible to encourage taxpayers to contribute.  Credits currently range from 50 to 100 percent.  Just over half the programs offer a 100 percent credit and around another 30 percent offer 75 to 90 percent credits.

Policymakers should aim to cap credits at a level that is sufficient to provide scholarships to all families who want one.  Limits should include “escalator clauses” that automatically raise caps over time to keep up with demand.  In Florida, for example, every time families claim at least 90 percent of the credits, the credit cap is increased by 25 percent the following year.

The scholarships themselves should be as close as possible to the state portion of per-pupil spending in K-12 public schools and should be eligible to be used for related expenses such as tutoring, online courses and educational therapy.

States should respect the ability of SGOs to set their own mission.  Some provide scholarships for students to attend religious schools, others focus on a particular pedagogical approach such as Montessori schools, while still others focus on a geographical area.

In terms of accountability, Bedrick urges policymakers not to require scholarship students to take a specified standardized test.  Instead, schools should be able to choose from among many norm-referenced tests.  This would give parents information about their children’s progress without unduly restricting how schools operate.

The study includes a foreword by Kendra Espinoza, who was the lead plaintiff in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the case in which the Supreme Court struck down so-called Blaine or Anti-Aid Amendments, such as one in Massachusetts, that prohibited public money from flowing to private schools.  “Earning Full Credit” also features an introduction from noted education reform expert Theodor Rebarber.

About the Authors

Jason Bedrick is director of policy for EdChoice. Previously, Bedrick served as policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. He also served as a legislator in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and was an education policy research fellow at the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy. Bedrick received his master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was a fellow at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government.

Kendra Espinoza is the lead plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. She is a working, single mother of daughters Naomi and Sarah, who attend Stillwater Christian School. They were recipients of Montana’s education tax credit program until the Montana Department of Revenue, citing the state’s Blaine Amendment, issued a rule excluding Stillwater Christian from the program on religious grounds.

Theodor Rebarber has worked on education reform and policy for three decades in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. He is currently CEO of nonprofit AAT (aateducation.org), which recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to develop an American History curriculum for high school. The curriculum will be based on historian Wilfred McClay’s outstanding new textbook Land of Hope. Rebarber’s other recent work has included: analysis of the impact of Common Core on student achievement; review of state mandates in school choice programs, and; development of an online testing platform serving 40,000 students, and; management of a consortium of five states that developed a large-scale standardized assessment. He was co-founder and chief education officer of a charter school company that accelerated academic achievement for 10,000, primarily disadvantaged students across 10 states. Rebarber served as senior staff in Congress, where he was the lead staff author of the federal charter schools statute for Washington, D.C., as well as legislation to improve traditional public schools and offer school choice to disadvantaged families. He worked at the U.S. Education Department’s office of research as well as serving as a research associate at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (VIPPS). He has testified before Congress and state legislatures as well as developed a range of education policy analyses and publications, including on state and national curriculum standards and assessments, school choice, education costs, accountability systems, differential and performance- based teacher compensation, program evaluation and teacher certification.

About Pioneer

Pioneer’s mission is to develop and communicate dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond.

Pioneer’s vision of success is a state and nation where our people can prosper and our society thrive because we enjoy world-class options in education, healthcare, transportation and economic opportunity, and where our government is limited, accountable and transparent.

Pioneer values an America where our citizenry is well-educated and willing to test our beliefs based on facts and the free exchange of ideas, and committed to liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.

Related Posts

Maine Tries to Ignore a Clear Supreme Court Ruling on Education

As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up Carson v. Makin, the facts are clear. Maine has chosen to subsidize private education. As such, it cannot disqualify all religious schools from receiving public dollars under its school choice program.

Prof. Raymond Arsenault on the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides & Civil Rights

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Raymond Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, and author of several acclaimed and prize-winning books on civil rights, including Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. He shares how he became interested in researching, writing, and teaching about the Civil Rights Movement.

Match Charter Public School Founder Mike Goldstein on School & Teacher Prep Reform

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Mike Goldstein, the founder of the MATCH Charter School and MATCH Teacher Residency in Boston.

Study: After Years of Steady Increases, Homeschooling Enrollment Rose Dramatically During COVID

After steadily increasing for years, the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children skyrocketed during the pandemic, and policy makers should do more to acknowledge homeschooling as a viable option, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

ASU’s Julie Young, Virtual Schooling Pioneer, on Digital Learning during COVID-19

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Cara Candal talks with Julie Young, ASU Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services, and Managing Director of ASU Prep Academy and ASU Prep Digital. They discuss the implications of COVID-19’s disruption of American K-12 education and the future of digital learning.

UChicago’s Dr. Leon Kass on Genesis, Exodus, & Reading Great Books

This week on “The Learning Curve," guest co-host Jason Bedrick and co-host Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Leon Kass, MD, the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kass describes the important pieces of wisdom and humanity people today can still learn from reading the Book of Genesis, the topic of his 2003 work, The Beginning of Wisdom.

NYT Best Seller Dr. Kate Clifford Larson on Fannie Lou Hamer & the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, a New York Times best-selling biographer of Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer. Kate shares why she has written about these historical African-American figures, and how she thinks parents, teachers, and schools can draw on their lives to talk about race.

Valhalla Foundation’s Nancy Poon Lue on STEM Access & Equity

This week on “The Learning Curve," host Gerard Robinson talks with Nancy Poon Lue, incoming Senior Director at the Valhalla Foundation, where she will be leading their K-12 math funding initiatives. Nancy shares her recent work with the EF+Math Program, some of the challenges America has faced in ensuring students have a strong grounding in math and science, and the kinds of results she aims to achieve for kids in all ZIP codes. 

Yale’s Pulitzer-Winning Prof. David Blight on Frederick Douglass, Slavery, & Emancipation

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and guest co-host Derrell Bradford talk with David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

UVA Prof. E.D. Hirsch, Jr. on Core Knowledge, Equity, & Educating Citizens

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, and acclaimed author of the books, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation.

Human Rights Advocate Kristina Arriaga on Cuba, Religious Liberty, & Cancel Culture

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Kristina Arriaga, president of Intrinsic, a strategic communications firm, and former vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Kristina shares her family’s experiences fleeing Castro’s communist regime in Cuba and other hardships, and how her background has shaped her commitment to religious liberty.

The Institute for Justice’s Michael Bindas on the SCOTUS, Carson v. Makin, & Expanding School Choice

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Michael Bindas, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice (IJ). They discuss IJ’s 2020 landmark U.S. Supreme Court win in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and its implications for state Blaine Amendments, bigoted legal barriers that have blocked religious liberty and school choice for over a century, as well as the Maine school tuitioning case, Carson v. Makin, which was recently granted certiorari.

Civil Rights Leader Bob Woodson on 1776 Unites & Race in America

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Robert Woodson, Sr., founder and president of the Woodson Center that supports neighborhood-based initiatives to revitalize low-income communities, as well as author and editor of the May 2021 book, "Red, White, and Black."

Mariam Memarsadeghi on Freeing Iran, Civic Ed, & Immigrant Portraits

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Cara Candal and guest co-host Derrell Bradford talk with Mariam Memarsadeghi, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Mariam shares remembrances from her early years spent in the Shah’s Iran, and emigration to the U.S. shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution in 1979.

Independent Institute’s Dr. Morgan Hunter on Teaching Greco-Roman History to High Schoolers

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Dr. Morgan Hunter, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in California, and co-author with Dr. Victor Davis Hanson and Dr. Williamson Evers, of the white paper, Is It Time for a “490 B.C. Project”?: High Schoolers Need to Know Our Classical Heritage.

Aurora Institute’s Susan Patrick on Digital Learning Lessons from COVID-19

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Susan Patrick, the President and CEO of Aurora Institute and co-founder of CompetencyWorks. Susan shares observations about the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for American K-12 education, and the prospects for expanding digital learning.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Prof. David Hackett Fischer on Paul Revere, George Washington, & American Independence

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with David Hackett Fischer, University Professor and Earl Warren Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University, and the author of numerous books, including Paul Revere's Ride and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington's Crossing. As America prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July, they review key figures who helped secure independence from Great Britain, including Paul Revere, immortalized in Longfellow’s classic poem, and Founding Father George Washington, known among his contemporaries as the “indispensable man” of the revolutionary cause.

AEI’s Naomi Schaefer Riley on Parenting, Excessive Screen Time, & Religion in American Education

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard Robinson and guest co-host Kerry McDonald talk with Naomi Schaefer Riley, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of several books, including Be the Parent, Please.