Bill Will Lower $500 From Tuition

By COLlive reporter

Many of you might be aware of the latest push by Agudah and the OU in partnership with the Catholic Archdioceses to get Albany to pass once and for all a tax credit for those parents sending their children to private school.

Back in January Senator Simcha Felder and his fellow Republicans in the Senate passed a controversial bill called “The Education Investment Tax Credit”

The bill provided a maximum tax credit of 90 percent of an individuals and corporate qualified contributions. However, the tax credit was capped at $1 million. Eligible contributions/donations include public school; school improvement organizations or local education funds that provide support to public schools; and qualifying educational scholarship organizations.

Additionally, taxpayers would not be allowed to use qualified contributions as both a charitable itemized deduction, and a credit against their New York State income tax. However, this bill died once it hit the Assembly, and in order to pass the budget the Governor and Senate Republicans removed this bill from the agenda. With the election of Assemblyman Carl Hastie as speaker, there was a renewed push to pass this bill once again.

Governor Cuomo has now become the biggest advocate for this issue, and has proposed his own version of the bill called “Parental Choice in Education Act”. Under the Governor’s proposal it would offer tax credits of up 75 percent to individuals and corporations who donate to scholarship organizations for private school students, and a $500 tuition tax credit for private school students from families with income under $60,000 annually. This means a family earning $60,000 or less would receive a tax credit of $500 per student per year.

The Senate and the governor are hoping to pass this bill as it is; however, the UFT (Teachers Union) and other public school advocates are mounting some of their own pressure on members of the Assembly not to pass this proposed bill. The union believes that the Governor is pushing this legislation at the behest of his wealthy campaign donors. Interesting enough this bill would also provide $30 million in funding to public schools. It calls for a 75 percent tax credit for individuals and corporations that donate to public schools, or not for profits that support public schools, and a $200 tax credit to public school teachers for out of pocket purchases for use in their classroom.

There are now two weeks to go until the legislative session in Albany concludes, which means there will be some compromises hash out between the Senate, the Assembly and Governor in order to pass this bill. Therefore, it is important that we as a community reach out to our newly elected Assemblywoman Richardson and encourage her to support this bill. It is also recommend that we reach out to Senator Hamilton to support this bill as well. (When the initial bill was proposed back in January, Senator Hamilton voted against it.)

Every Jewish community across the State is mounting an aggressive effort to ensure their local Assembly person votes in favor of this bill, and it is important that the residents of Crown Height do the same.

Assemblywoman Richardson:
District Office: 718-771-3105
Albany Office: 518-455-5262
Email: [email protected]

Senator Hamilton:
District Office: 718-284-4700
Albany Office: 518-455-2431
Email: [email protected]

Here are some basic facts you need to know about this bill:

Does this mean I can donate directly to my child’s school?
No. Only donations to scholarship organizations are eligible for the tax credit.

I have three kids and earn less than $260,000. How much scholarship money could I expect?
It depends on how much money the scholarship organization affiliated with your children’s school collects, and how many other children are eligible for scholarships in its affiliated schools.

How much of the $67 million in scholarship money will benefit day school students overall?
It depends on where donors direct their donations — and whether the tax credits are handed out on a first come, first served basis (rewarding those who act quickly) or whether they are distributed proportionately to all who apply during an open enrollment period. New York State has about 400,000 students in non-public schools; approximately 150,000 are in Jewish day schools and yeshivas.

What’s the justification for sending public money to private and parochial schools?
Opponents say that government assistance to private and parochial schools comes at the expense of public schools, and that the 75 percent tax credit for donors to scholarship organizations amounts to a giveaway for the rich and that families making $250,000 per year shouldn’t qualify for government-subsidized scholarship assistance.

But Jeff Leb, managing director of government and external relations at UJA-Federation of New York, says day school parents deserve government support because they save public schools the cost of educating their kids, day schools provide jobs to public school teachers, and $250,000 does not make you rich if you have kids in day school. Noting the establishment of similar programs in other states, Leb added that there’s no church-state concern. “This provides a small service to help families who are struggling to make ends meet,” Leb said. “It’s the least the state can do to provide.”