Oregon lawmaker pushes for private-school tax credits
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon lawmaker wants to ask voters to allow tax credits to pay for tuition at private and religious schools.
The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to take up the idea Thursday, although it's a longshot in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Boosting access to private schools would create more options for parents and improve schools by increasing competition, said Republican Sen. Betsy Close, of Albany. She wants to let individuals and corporations earn a dollar-for-dollar credit against their taxes for contributions to pay for educational expenses, including private-school tuition.
She has proposed a ballot measure asking voters to create an exception to the state constitution's iron-clad ban on using tax money to benefit religious institutions.
"I think more competition makes better schools, whether private or public," Close said.
Critics say the state shouldn't be indirectly funding private schools by allowing tax credits to divert money from state coffers.
Oregon's constitution says, "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any religeous, or theological institution."
Voters have twice rejected watering down that language, said David Fidanque, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, which opposes Close's proposal.
"We feel very strongly that keeping the government and religion separate are an important protection for religion as well as for government," Fidanque said.
Individuals could claim tax credits of up to $1,000 per year, and corporations could claim up to $10,000. The money would not go directly to the schools or parents, but would be funneled through new nonprofit organizations.
Close's effort is modeled after a program in Arizona that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
How about a voucher system like some other states do? Take your students alloctaed money for the year to whatever school he can get into. With a 62% on time graduation rate in PPS they have to give the parents some viable options. All they seem to be able to bend over backwards in the name of diversity but the end results don't change. Oh excuse me, the year prior to that the on time graduation rate was 61%. More than likely due to families moving out of the district, not school district improvements.
@Mr. Carbon Footprint I'm sorry, but I just completely fail to see how the graduation rate is the fault of the schools.  Kids aren't interested in classes?  So what.  That's as old as education.  Getting them in the seats isn't the job of the educators - it's the job of the parents.
@Festivus @Mr. Carbon Footprint A good educator knows that it's the educator's job to keep the kids interested in the classes. That's part of the challenge of educating.
Won't get my vote (if I had one) unless strict reporting is put into place that requires all such tax monies be put directly into education and none of it into the coffers of the local parish or other religious organization running the school. Â
And don't make the mistake of thinking that private schools are some panacea. Â I spent eight years in one, and actually had less of an educational opportunity than I would have had at the local grade school. Â
@Festivus My kid is going to a Catholic school and in her first year she's been up to the Tut exhibit, learned about Isis, Horus, Ra, the Pharoahs, they're learning about the ancient Greeks now, and can find Sparta on a globe. *sniff*
They also plant a garden, and they're studying the Carbiniferous era. She's struggling just a tiny bit with education.  Halfway through first grade. She has homework every week. More importantly, she loves her teachers and she loves her school.
I'm sorry, but, you got ripped off.
@Playanekes Don't misunderstand - what they taught, they taught me well.  The problem was a lack of staff, funding, and student body size to go beyond the basic curriculum.  I had finished all of the math available to me by early in the eighth grade.  The public school down the street would have had a way to get me into a high school algebra class or equivalent.  My Catholic school had no means at their disposal to offer that in a class of less than 20 students.
@Festivus Well that explains a few things.
Parents ought to be able to take the tax dollars they pay and direct them to the school of their choice for their kids. It's time for people to have a say in where their education dollars are spent. If public education costs $10k per student, then parents ought to be able to have half that to send their kids to a school of their choice.
Finally, a good idea from Salem........
I see the public school system as the big three auto makers of the 1970's..... all three auto makers were building crappy cars as there really was no other competition. Once the Asian cars came to the American market..... It FORCED the big three to compete and build better quality cars and eventually they did.
So IMHO competition among the govt run schools would force the public schools to do better just like the car makers..... it would force the public schools to be more efficient with their money, the public schools would be forced to can the bad teachers, meaning dead wood teachers would no longer be acceptable,..... the teachers unions would just have to deal with the reality that the kids education comes before the unions desire to keep crappy teachers employed. Teachers are just like any other profession..... there are a handful of exceptional teachers, the vast majority in the middle do a competent job and some poor teachers that should be fired. However, the powerful teachers unions have the ability to keep crappy teachers employed and that needs to change. And competition is probably the only way it will happen.
It seems rather simple to me...... if you want whats best for the kids as a first priority.... then support competition as it will force every school to be the best it can be.Â