The following document is an outline of Peg's plan for facilitating "school choice" without creating another government "program."

Parents who pay to send their children to a private elementary or secondary school in Pennsylvania, or to a Pennsylvania public school other than the one to which they have been assigned, would be allowed a credit against their LOCAL school-district taxes for tuition, books, and other mandatory fees.

They could take the credit on a dollar-for-dollar basis against their SCHOOL occupational, per capita, real estate, residence, local income and/or wage tax. Students would have to be attending a Pennsylvania institution, and credits could not be "carried over" from one year to the next.

Homeschoolers would be eligible for the credit to cover books, materials, and professional fees. Parents could not take the credit to pay themselves for teaching their children.

Other individual taxpayers or corporations may also take the credit against their local property taxes if they contribute to a foundation for the express purpose of underwriting the educational expenses of students attending an alternative (tuition-charging) educational institution.

Public schools that lose students as a result of this opportunity will still receive their state funding, without decrease, for the first year. Loss of state subsidy for students leaving will be phased in during a five year period after that.

The amount of the credit is the lesser of:

Two Examples:

By tying the tax credit to LOCAL taxes, real assistance is possible. Areas with higher property taxes also usually have higher tuition costs, and vice versa. Parents therefore have the ability to receive a credit commensurate with their tuition costs, instead of just a state average.

The universal nature of the tax credit allows corporations and individuals to help fund students and/or schools, up to 100% of educational expenses for those who need additional help. This flexibility gives low-income children real opportunities, instead of a state-determined amount that may not meet their economic needs.

For example, a business could choose to make a contribution to cover the educational expenses of its employees' children; or to cover the tuition of children attending a particular school. An individual could contribute to cover the educational expenses of a grandchild, or neighbor.

The educational tax credit would be handled just as other deductions are claimed on tax forms, with the same penalties for fraudulent claims. Additionally, since foundations are themselves subject to federal and state scrutiny, an internal policing system is built into the program.

Yes, Arizona passed a tax credit bill that allows the foundation-scholarship approach. Minnesota, after failing to pass a voucher bill, passed a tax credit bill. And in Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy published a recommendation for a Universal Tuition Tax Credit approach to school choice.

The program will not require any additional appropriation from the state.

In current voucher legislative language, parents must request an alternative school placement. Requests can be denied.

They require the state to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars every year. That means that even if vouchers pass as an allowable program, parents would have to fight every year to be sure that enough money was appropriated in the budget to keep the voucher program alive. If a budget battle is lost, the vouchers disappear for that year.

...and such ties can lead to further state control of non-public education.

Pennsylvania is the home of Grove City College, where the federal government and a small religious post-secondary school battled over what constituted government "shekels" and what "shackles" the government could impose on a school that took them. As a result of that battle, colleges like Grove City, Hillsdale, and Christendom do not accept ANY government funding - including student loans. The same is true at the state level. In Virginia, a voucher-type Tuition Assistance Grant was given to students to attend Virginia educational institutions. After the program had become well-established, the state imposed significant limitations on participating institutions. As a result, Liberty University, an evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell, was told to change its chapel attendance policies and faculty hiring practices or lose the subsidy. The school changed.