February 4, 2025

[1]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org
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Take Action to Fight Federal Tax Credit Vouchers!

On January 29, a number of senators, including North Carolina Senators Budd
and Tillis, introduced a bill that would provide up to $10 BILLION in
annual tax credits to fund private and religious schools. This bill is a
mirror of House of Representatives Bill 531 introduced in 2023.

These bills will divert billions in funds away from programs that support
public schools to organizations and schools that are prohibited from being
held accountable for how the dollars are spent.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, [7]Senate Bill 292 "Educational
Choice for Children Act” (ECCA) would establish "a new tax credit for
individuals and corporations who make charitable contributions to
organizations that give scholarships – or vouchers – for students to attend
private schools. Currently, vouchers overwhelmingly support wealthy parents
who are already sending their children to private school. ECCA will, in
effect, redirect federal funding away from other, crucial government
services, towards wealthy individuals and families."

Where data exists to track the academic outcomes for students who use
vouchers to transfer to private school, data show steep declines for
voucher students. Vouchers are harmful!

The non-profit organizations eligible to receive the charitable donations,
Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO), can be any nonprofit that gives
funds to two or more unrelated children. What’s more, the bill explicitly
prohibits any type of regulation or oversight of the SGOs or the private
schools receiving the funds:
* “PROHIBITION OF CONTROL OVER SCHOLARSHIP ORGANIZATIONS: Nothing in this
Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to permit,
allow, encourage, or authorize any Federal, State, or local government
entity, or officer or employee thereof, to mandate, direct, or control any
aspect of any scholarship granting organization.
* “PROHIBITION OF CONTROL OVER NON-PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Nothing in this Act,
or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to permit, allow,
encourage, or authorize any Federal, State, or local government entity, or
officer or employee thereof, to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of
any private or religious elementary or secondary education institution.”

Tax credit vouchers are simply another way to drain resources from the
public and funnel them to private interests with no accountability for how
the funds are spent. Under Senate Bill 292, Individuals may receive tax
credits for contributions to the SGO of up to $5,000 per year and
organizations may receive tax credits for contributions up to 5 percent of
the organization’s taxable income.

Tax credit voucher programs have been implemented in 17 states where they
serve as [8]tax avoidance schemes for wealthy families. Recent data reveal
that wealthy families with annual incomes over $200,000 are overwhelmingly
the ones using the tax credits.

This is a scam and must be stopped!

For more information about the types of vouchers, see our [9]fact sheet.

Sign our petition and then contact your U.S. congressional members.

Contact Senators [10]Ted Budd (202) 224-3154 and [11]Thom Tillis (202)
224-6342 to urge them to remove their sponsorship of this harmful bill!

Contact House of Representative members to urge them to reject the ECCA!

You can access their contact information on our website [12]HERE (scroll
down the page).

[13]Sign Our Petition!

Help us support public schools!

Public Schools First NC is a statewide nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit
focused solely

on pre-K to 12 public education issues. We collaborate with parents,
teachers, business and civic leaders, and communities across North Carolina
to advocate for one unified system of public education that prepares each
child for productive citizenship.

DONATE HERE

[14]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]

References

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