TC’s Abrams: Federal Tax Credits Could be Used to Promote School Choice
Sam Abrams, Director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in EducationTC’s Sam Abrams is quoted in an online story by Anya Kamenetz at NPR.org about Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education. Kamenetz writes that one way DeVos could carry out Trump's stated preference for promoting school choice, is to enact federal tax-credit scholarships like those in Florida. Unlike vouchers, which are public funds given to parents to pay for private school, tax credits wouldn't require the allocation of tax dollars. Instead, as in Florida, Kamenetz writes, “corporations or individuals can offset state tax liability by donating to a private, nonprofit scholarship organization. The money from this fund is in turn awarded to families to pay for tuition at private schools. Tax credits could be a way to promote school choice on a federal level without writing big checks.”
Abrams agrees, noting that “there isn't that much money that is fungible from the federal education budget.”
