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- Contents:
- IN THIS REPORT
Readers will find important information about state-level efforts to advance parental freedom, learn of the availability of new documents advancing school choice, enjoy David Kirkpatrick's assertion that "Democracy Will Prevail," and share the Editor's View of productive activity at the American Education Reform Foundation (AERF).
COLORADO
State Representative Penn Pfiffner has introduced a bill
which would create a tax credit for the state of Colorado similar to the
one recently made law in Arizona. HB 1185 would allow a non-refundable
tax credit of up to $500 for persons who make cash donations to school
tuition organizations, who pay fees for public school extracurricular activities,
or who spend money on instructional materials for home schooling. It defines
a school tuition organization as a charitable organization, exempt from
federal taxes, which allocates at least ninety percent of its annual revenue
for tuition scholarships or grants to nongovernmental primary or secondary
schools. Although the credit would be non-refundable, it could be carried
forward as a tax credit against the next year's income tax liability, for
a period not to exceed five years. (Information provided by the office
of Rep. Pfiffner)
ILLINOIS
The Illinois legislature has chosen not to consider overriding
Governor Edgar's veto of the refundable tax credit measure which it passed
in 1997. The measure would have given a $500 credit to parents in public,
private, or parochial schools with educational expenses exceeding $250.
The House had approved it in April and the Senate in November. The bill's
sponsor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, had planned an override attempt, but opted
instead to consider resubmitting it next session.
State Senator James Clayborne has introduced a proposal which would allow income tax deductions of up to $100,000 for contributions to education. Under SB 1294 individuals, trusts, estates, or corporations would be eligible for deductions by making contributions to elementary or secondary schools, public or private. Deductions would also be allowed for contributions to foundations which generate money for schools. The deductions would begin with the 1998 tax year and end in 2003, as will Illinois' new funding formula. (Information provided by Charter Consultants)
IOWA
Governor Terry Branstad has requested that the Iowa legislature
increase the state's current $100 tax credit for parents who spend money
on private school tuition and textbook fees. Gov. Branstad requested that
the credit be increased to $250 annually. He asked that the credit also
be expanded to cover the costs of school fees incurred by parents of public
school students. (Education Week, 01/28/98)
KANSAS
A fresh breeze from Kansas helps to blow away one of
the standard smoke screens against school choice. The defenders of educational
finance monopoly (EFM) typically say "school choice will 'break the bank.'"
To sustain such nonsense, the game they usually play is that school choice
must be budgeted on top of all current costs. Serious people know,
of course, that intelligently designed choice programs can be cost savers
and never need to add to a budget on a net basis. A crucial confirmation
of this recently came from the Kansas State Budget Director. Concerning
Kansas State Represenative Kay O'Connor's excellent school choice legislative
proposal, the Budget Director, after long denial, acknowledged that enactment
of her "Kansas Parent Control of Education Act" would at worst be
cost neutral and possibly cause net savings.
That has always been true. Finally, it has been admitted.
LOUISIANA
State Representative David Vitter went solidly on record
as a proponent of parental freedom in education last month when the New
Orleans Times Picayune published a letter of his on January 12. Rep.
Vitter stated clearly, "I believe that only a more fundamental shift to
vouchers and school choice — the insertion of competition into our public
education monopoly — can jolt the present system out of its present free-fall."
Rep. Vitter praised the well-timed appearance of a January 5 column by
Mr. Neal Pierce in the Times Picayune which outlined the educational
reforms being sought by Milwaukee's Mayor John Norquist. He recalled words
written in the Wall Street Journal over seven years ago by Jackie
Ducote, president of Louisiana's Public Affairs Research Council: "Piecemeal
attempts to change the present system haven't worked and won't work because
the present system is a monopoly. It has a captive clientele and guaranteed
funding regardless of results. Thus, it has no incentive to change, and
parents and students have no leverage. They can't take their business elsewhere
unless they are willing and able to pay twice for it." In that same spirit,
Rep. Vitter requests that the Louisiana legislature stop wasting time with
ineffective educational reform and, instead, "do something real."
MICHIGAN
On February 28 a new organization for school choice supporters
in Detroit will host a public meeting to begin developing the details of
their plans to push vouchers and an expansion of public school choice.
The Detroit Partnership for School Choice announced the meeting on January
31, at the close of their first public rally of about 300 people. The Detroit
Partnership developed out of a coalition of Detroit clergy which includes
Baptist ministers and the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. Its main focus
is in seeking greater educational freedom for the poor families of Detroit.
As part of its push for vouchers the group plans to develop a statewide
referendum for the year 2000 which would amend Michigan's constitution
to allow the use of vouchers. (Detroit Free Press, 02/02/98)
A federal judge has allowed nearly four hundred Michigan teachers to join a class-action lawsuit against the National Education Association (NEA) and its local affiliate, the Michigan Education Association (MEA). The teachers are charging the NEA and MEA with using compulsory union service fees to fund political activities against their wishes. Originally filed in 1992 on behalf of 18 teachers, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan formally extended the lawsuit on February 12 to include all teachers in the state who have refrained from union membership and challenged the NEA's assessments regarding how much of their forced union dues have been used for non-bargaining purposes. (Information provided by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation)
NEW HAMPSHIRE
In December we reported that a group of legislators was
drafting a bill (HB 2056) which would enable school districts to vote to
reimburse parents for public, nonpublic, and home school tuition costs.
The Parental School Choice and Reimbursement Bill has now been formally
introduced in the legislature: in the Senate as SB 456, sponsored by Sen.
Jim Rubens, and in the House as HB 1476, sponsored by Rep. Mary Brown.
Also introduced in the legislature, by Rep. Tom Colburn, was CACR 42 — a Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution — which would amend the constitution of New Hampshire explicitly to allow public money to be used to compensate individuals for sectarian education.
On February 9 proponents of both bills testified before a joint House-Senate Education Committee. Among those who testified was Mr. David Kirkpatrick, Distinguished Fellow at the Blum Center. The committee is expected to vote on the bills this week. (Information provided by Mrs. Judy Alger of the Legislative Resource Center of New Hampshire)
NEW JERSEY
On January 13 the Lincoln Park school board put a final,
formal end to the controversial school choice plan it had originally approved
one year ago by striking it from the district's policy books on a vote
of 5-3. The plan was halted by the state's education department last April,
because it did not have legislative approval, and then struck down by a
newly elected school board shortly after that. (For more information see
Freedom Reports #54 and #55.) Voucher supporters in Lincoln Park
have started their own privately funded tuition assistance program in order
to alleviate their current lack of educational freedom. (Record
01/14/98)
OHIO
Ohio state legislators were dismayed when they became
aware last month that about 1,079 students enrolled in the Cleveland Scholarship
program were being driven to and from school each day in taxicabs, which
has so far cost the state $2.8 million. Sudden awareness of these transportation
costs among the legislature and general public threatened to jeopardize
the program, so the office of Gov. Voinovich quickly began developing alternative
transportation plans. By the beginning of this month about 700 of the students
were riding yellow buses instead of taxicabs. While the governor's office
has rightly emphasized that these transportation costs are in no way related
to the effectiveness of the program with regards to education, some believe
that opponents of school choice will use the issue to promote opposition
for the Scholarship Plan among the public. (Plain Dealer, 01/28/98;
Washington Times, 01/19/98)
OREGON
Mr. Spencer Schock, a young Oregon businessman who is
running for state superintendent of public instruction, believes that the
best way to strengthen public schools is with a voucher system for families
with children in private schools. Mr. Schock supports a plan which would
give those parents vouchers worth 75 percent of the private school's tuition.
"If (my plan) is structured right," he said, "public schools would actually
end up making money out of this deal." He cited 1995 figures from Oregon's
Cascade Policy Institute which say that private schools have an average
tuition of $3,241 per year, and he compared that to the $6,400 per student
per year which Oregon spends on public school students. Moreover, Mr. Schock
believes, "Choosing one's school is a basic right." (Oregonian,
01/22/98)
PENNSYLVANIA
The Legislative Commission on Restructuring Pennsylvania's
Urban Schools — a seventeen-member, bipartisan effort created last April
to evaluate Pennsylvania's urban school districts — has given its formal
recommendations to the legislature. The commission recommends, among other
things, that students in poorly performing public schools should be given
"opportunity scholarships" to attend private or parochial schools. The
proposal received immediate opposition from the Philadelphia Federation
of Teachers. The commission was comprised of educators, business leaders,
and elected officials. (School Reform News, 02/98)
WISCONSIN
Governor Tommy Thompson unveiled the details of a $101
million package of educational tax deductions and credits for Wisconsin
residents which he plans to push in the legislature this session. The package,
to which he referred in his State of the State address on January 20, would
benefit parents with children in public and private grade schools, high
schools, and colleges. However, private and religious school tuition would
not be included among the list of eligible expenses. State Rep. Greg Underheim,
who ran for superintendent of education last year, has asked Gov. Thompson
to add private school tuition to the list of eligible expenses. The governor
has said that although he has not ruled out any additions to the list,
his purpose with this proposal was not to implement statewide school choice.
The proposal as it is now would provide middle-income parents of students in grades K -12 with one $1,500 tax deduction per child, while low-income families would receive the same amount in tax credits. The list of eligible expenses for K-12 students includes: tutoring, some transportation costs, summer camp fees, non-religious instructional materials, school supplies, and computers. (Education Week, 02/04/98; Wisconsin State Journal, 01/26/98)
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for the case regarding the constitutionality of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program's 1995 expansion to include religious schools and more students. They have been set for Wednesday, March 4, in Madison. The Institute for Justice, which is defending the expansion, believes that this date will give the court plenty of time to render a decision before summer. (Information provided by the Institute for Justice)
NATIONAL NEWS
Republican congressional leadership has renewed its support
for school choice this year in a newly packaged set of proposals, entitled
"BOOKS" (Better Opportunities for Our Kids and Schools). They include:
the expansion of federal funding for charter school; the tax-free educational
savings accounts proposed last year by Senator Paul Coverdell; the consolidation
and transfer of federal programs to state control; and a five-year pilot
voucher program for low-income students and for students attending "unsafe"
schools. (FYI, a publication of the American Legislative Exchange
Council, 01/30/98)
Acquisitions
¨ Among its most recent
acquisitions the Blum Center has added some of the legislation mentioned
above in this month's summaries of state-level activity. Namely, the Blum
Center now retains copies of the legislation being proposed by Rep. Penn
Pfiffner of Colorado, along with both bills mentioned in our summary of
New Hampshire activity. We would like to remind readers that we also keep
a copy of the school choice legislation introduced each year by Rep. Kay
O'Connor of Kansas, also mentioned above. Finally, we have received a packet
of materials from New Mexico which outlines the educational reforms being
newly promoted by Governor Gary Johnson. For copies of these items, please
contact the Blum Center.
Noteworthy Items
¨ Forbes magazine
published an article in its February 23 issue called "The Skills Gap" by
Kelly Barron and Ann Marsh. This article explains the "skills shortage"
which currently plagues many employers in America. According to the article,
many companies in today's business world are discovering that their new
hires cannot read, write, or add properly, and require additional schooling,
despite the fact that many of them have already been schooled. The article
states, "Nearly 20% of the companies recently surveyed by Training
magazine said they taught reading, writing, arithmetic, or English to their
new hires. Of those semiliterates, 67% had high school diplomas." The article
says that these statistics are nothing other than a "black eye for the
public education system," which is simply not doing its job. The authors
conclude that if the U.S. does nothing about "its inefficient educational
monopoly, it will have real trouble maintaining its present level of economic
growth."
I am delighted in this column to pass along some greatly useful words from Kevin Teasley. I am especially pleased to call Freedom Report readers' attention to Kevin's concluding sentence. This is of vital importance to the many groups around the nation that are at preliminary stages in the struggle for parental freedom in education.
In Freedom Report #29, Kevin Teasley reflected on experience in working for school choice in California and elsewhere. He stated the need for school choice proponents to gather together, share their stories, learn from their mistakes and successes, and to work together toward future success. At that time, it was simply an idea; today it is a reality.
Kevin now leads the American Education Reform Foundation (AERF), formed in late 1996 to win battles for school choice by pooling resources and focusing energies in specific targeted areas. During its first year, Kevin reports, AERF was fortunate to have assisted in several victories. His report follows:
"The year started off with a bang in Arizona. We focused our energies on supporting a lobbying effort in support of a bill that provides residents of Arizona a state income tax credit of up to $500 if they make a $500 contribution to a non-profit scholarship providing foundation. This law provides residents an added incentive to give to foundations that provide scholarships to low-income children.
"Shortly after Arizona, supporters of AERF focused their energies on the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin. As a result, we saw Justice Wilcox, a sitting state Supreme Court judge, defeat an anti-school choice trial lawyer to remain on the bench. This race was crucial to the efforts in Wisconsin, as the issue of school choice is sure to reach the state Supreme Court soon.
"All throughout the year, we worked alongside Governor Carlson of Minnesota. Carlson demonstrated that he not only had a good plan, but that he had the resolve and the team to win. And win he did. Today, all families in Minnesota can qualify for either a refundable education tax credit of $1,000 per child (up to $2,000 per family) or a tax deduction of $1,625 per child in grades K-7 or $2,500 per child in grades 8-12, which can be used for tuition. While tuition is not included in the credit portion of the plan, private school fees do qualify for the credit. Syndicated columnist Jim Pinkerton reports private school enrollment in Minnesota has jumped 20 percent since this bill was signed into law.
"Governor Carlson did more than win a battle for the kids of Minnesota; he gave the movement a new ray of hope. He proved to the nation that the proper plan can win and that if sufficiently supported, our political leaders will be victorious on this issue.
"In our nation's capitol, we fought for legislation to save the kids in the District from the dismal school system they are compelled to attend. This is the only school system in the nation that I know of that has its own web site monitoring its failures; it is entitled 'D.C. Schools Crisis Resource Page' and it is put together by the Washington Post.
"Our entire effort was focused on getting the bill through the U.S. Senate. We held press conferences with Senator Lott, Speaker Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Senators Lieberman and Coverdell and well as Congressmen Flake, Talent and Watts. We collected 2,000 signatures from D.C. residents who want choice and we built a coalition of more than 100 D.C. ministers for school choice. When the heat was on, we took out full-page ads in the New York Times and USA Today.
"Never before has school choice legislation made it through the U.S. Senate. Last year, it did. The bill is now on the House side and is sure to pass and go to the President's desk — this too will be a first.
"The message of AERF is clear. If school choice supporters work together and focus their energies appropriately, we can win school choice battles for our children. AERF is willing to work with state-based groups to develop a successful plan of action. All school choice supporters should feel free to call us at any time."
Contact information for Kevin Teasley and AERF is as follows: 3802 Springfield Overlook, Indianapolis, IN 46234, Tel. 317-328-4711, FAX 317-328-4712. n
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The Blum Center grants full permission for all of its documents to be copied, in part or in whole, to extend the reach of the Center's messages and information. We appreciate it when our readers keep us apprised of state and national developments in the area of school choice, particularly legislative developments. Any Blum Center documents not available on our web page may be obtained by contacting us by telephone, fax, or mail. Virgil C. Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education |
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