AASA Applauds Introduction of Public Funds for Public Schools Act
Last spring, AASA and the Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy released a scathing report called Public Loss, Private Gain:
How School Voucher Tax Shelters Undermine Public Education where we described how taxpayers in nine states
are able to profit from their donations to private school voucher programs. In
our report, we recommended Congress introduce legislation to close this voucher
tax shelter that diverts millions of dollars away from federal coffers and back
into voucher proponents’ pockets.
We
are excited to share that Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) has introduced legislation to
close the voucher tax shelter. AASA, along with 33 national education, civil
rights, religious and disability organizations sent a letter in support her bill called the Public Funds for Public Schools Act (H.R. 4269). Already
it has garnered three additional co-sponsors. Alabama is one of the nine states
where wealthy taxpayers have a financial incentive to support private school
voucher programs because they are able to take a federal deduction on a donation
for which they also received a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. This enables them
to avoid paying federal taxes on a “charitable contribution” that costs them nothing
thereby allowing them to pay less in taxes.
Sewell
sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and she spoke about her
bill during the Committee’s mark-up of the tax bill. Her staff also put
together a great one-pager on the bill that you can read here.