Credits For Private Schools Becomes Taxing Issue
The House tax committee was locked in a battle Wednesday over a proposal to give parents who don’t use public schools a tax credit of $1,000 per child.
So many people signed up to testify before the House Revenue and Taxation Committee that a two-hour hearing wasn’t enough and Chairman Rep. Donna Jones said the discussion would continue today.
The Idaho Family Forum, a conservative religious organization, sponsored a bill to give a parent a tax credit for sending a child to parochial school, private institutions or home schooling them.
Several attorneys testified, disagreeing over whether the measure would be constitutional.
Jason Monteleone, lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said there’s no question that if the state paid a parent whose child goes to parochial school it would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
But Deputy Attorney General William von Tagen and Rep. Mark Stubbs, R-Twin Falls, a lawyer, argued the opposite.
Sponsoring Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, said many parents want to send their children to private schools, but can’t afford it. “This is a parents’ choice bill. It makes that choice a little more affordable.”
Sponsors estimated the cost at $759,000 per year, using a state report that showed there were 759 first-graders last year who were not in public schools. One section of the bill proposed a pilot project, with just 7-year-old first-graders qualifying in the first year.
But committee members said there seemed to be some confusion over another section in the bill that appeared to grant the tax credit to all nonpublic school students ages 7-16.
There are about 10,000 parochial, private and homeschooled students. If all claimed the credit against their state income tax, that could cost the state up to $10 million per year in income tax revenue.
The measure stipulates that parents can claim the credit only up to the amount of their state tax bill. There would be no vouchers or cash refunds.
Henry Kulczyk of the Idaho Family Forum said, “One of the greatest assaults on the family today is high taxes.” He said if the proposal encourages more parents to place their children in private schools, public school operating expenses will go down.
But Blas Telleria of the Boise Education Association said there are 12,000 classroom units in the state, and if 10,000 students left for nonpublic schools, that would be less than one student per class.