What’s not to love? Public schools would get more money, public school teachers would have access to more money for professional training and scholarship organizations would be able to help more students attend schools that best help them achieve their potential.
That would be the outcome if BOAST – Building Opportunities for all Students and Teachers – passes in Maryland. But despite wide bi-partisan support, the chair of the Ways and Means committee, Del. Sheila Hixson (D-Montgomery County), won’t take action on it.
Similar tax credit legislation has passed in other states, including Arizona, Florida and Georgia. Pennsylvania passed a similar bill in 2001 with a large bi-partisan majority. In recent years, it increased the amount to $75 million from $45 million available for students and teachers because of its popularity and last year expanded the program to allow more businesses to participate in it.
Andrew LeFevre, executive director of REACH, which supports school choice in Pennsylvania, said the program saves the state about $396 million each year. He calculates that number by multiplying $9,000 – the cost of educating a public school student in Pennsylvania — by 44,000, the number of students using scholarships generated by the law. He said its generated wide community support – 3,600 businesses contribute to the program and about 60 give the maximum $300,000 allowed under Pennsylvania law.
Ina Lipman, executive director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, said the money generated from the tax credit fund comprises about 40 percent of the group’s budget. Next year, CSFP will provide 800 new scholarships for K-8th graders, bringing the total number of scholarships offered to about 3,300.
The CSFP tracks its students after they pass 8th grade and found that over 95 percent of them graduate on time and that 90 percent were enrolled in college. Those statistics are remarkable given that the graduation rate in Philadelphia public schools is about 50 percent and that CSFP picks students by lottery and need. Demand outstrips capacity – as the group has received over 80,000 applications for the 5,800 scholarships it has awarded since it began.
I sit on the board of Children’s Scholarship Fund Baltimore, a sister organization to CSFP, where we award about $1 million in scholarships to 500 students in Baltimore City. When we first launched, we received applications for 21,145 children, and we have a waiting list of 2,000 families.
We’d love to help them all. Is Del. Hixson telling those families, whose children are forced to attend schools where learning frequently takes a back seat to safety, they must wait for relief once again?
Besides, shouldn’t the financial argument alone make the case for the legislation? The fiscal policy note attached to HB 1259 says the legislation will cost the state money. But that is false. Fewer children in public school means the state would have to spend less, even after adjusting for filling the tax credit fund.
The bill does not include an appropriation for the fund. But if 5,000 students were able to opt for the scholarships, that would mean $57 million saved for the state at the 2007-2008 cost per student of $11,398. Given the projected deficits in coming years, shaving millions from the budget should be welcomed.
This is not to mention the millions the bill could potentially provide to public schools for innovative programming and financial aid for public school teachers for certification and graduate-level study. And it would encourage business to make a long-term commitment to improving education in the state.
This should not be a partisan issue – as the long list of sponsors from both parties makes clear. It should be about improving educational opportunities for Maryland children, wherever they go to school.
To find out more about the bill, visit boastmaryland.org. The site was created by a coalition of nonprofits, including the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Outward Bound, the Maryland Catholic Conference, and the Maryland Science Center. It provides a link to contact your legislator about the bill – use it or call Del. Hixson at 410-841-3469 and tell her to move the bill out of committee.
Letting the bill die will cost the state millions. But the greatest price will be paid by the thousands of low-income children who once again will be denied access to an education that allows them to climb out of the constant cycle of poverty trapping so many families in Maryland.
Examiner columnist Marta H. Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
