Public schools see ‘money on the table’ in education tax credit designed for private school choice
Tutoring. SAT prep. Summer camp. Field trips.
These are just some of the things that education advocates hope to offer public school students through the federal scholarship tax credit, a major school choice expansion that has the potential to become the one of the largest sources of federal funding for schools.
The list includes things that well-off families provide their own children as a matter of course, as well as things that public schools used to provide that now feel like luxuries.
A small but growing set of organizations — school districts, charter schools, public school foundations, start-up nonprofits, and after-school providers — is working to turn a tax credit primarily designed to cover private school tuition into a benefit for public school students. The extent of their success could determine how many children are ultimately helped by the tax credit, and influence whether more Democratic governors in particular opt their states into the program.
“Critics would say this wasn’t created for us,” said Sara Hazel, the president and CEO of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, which raises money for Colorado’s largest school district and hopes to use tax-credit dollars for tutoring and after-school scholarships. “I believe there’s money on the table, and public school students should benefit from that. That’s the bottom line of why we’re doing this.”
Some are enthusiastic, like New York charter school leader Ian Rowe, who wants his students to have, yes, SAT prep, but also horizon-expanding experiences like going up in small planes with trained flight instructors to spark an interest in aviation and aerospace careers.
