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, 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!
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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 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 fact sheet.
Sign our petition and then contact your U.S. congressional members.
Contact Senators Ted Budd (202) 224-3154 and 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 HERE (scroll down the page).
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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.
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