Virginia’s Democratic Senate killed a bill Tuesday that would have provided tax credits to companies that help pay the private school tuition of low-income students.
The bill establishes an alternative to traditional school vouchers. It would provide companies tax credits worth up to 75 percent of their contributions. Opponents said that was far too much money to give to companies at a time when public schools are facing flat budgets and potential cuts.
The bill, according to its Republican backers, could have saved the state money by removing students from the public system.
Similar programs have been implemented in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, where they have been sold as a bi-partisan alternative to traditional school voucher programs. But bipartisanship was nowhere to be found about the issue in Richmond, where the House-passed bill fell in a party line vote in the Senate Finance Committee.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decried the finance committee’s move, saying that Democrats “have unfortunately voted against innovative education reforms that would increase educational opportunities for Virginia’s underprivileged children.”
