School Choice: Making Progress in Rhode Island

In July, I pointed to a Morton Kondracke column that noted that those of diverse political persuasions may be forming a consensus on school reform. While I was away on vacation in August, I missed a report that suggests we are making such bipartisan-supported progress here in Rhode Island.

The Heritage Foundation has issued their "School Choice: 2006 Progress Report", which divulges:

Seven states—Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island— have tax credits or deductions for education expenses, including private school tuition, or incentives for contributions to scholarship programs....

In Rhode Island, lawmakers cre­ated a new $1 million corporate scholarship tax credit program to provide tuition scholarships to children from low-income families. To receive a scholarship, a student must be from a family with an income below 250 percent of the poverty line.

The Rhode Island Senate Saturday passed a corporate scholarship tax credit program that will allow hundreds of low-income families to expand their educational options and send their children to private or parochial schools. Rhode Island becomes the eighth state in the country to enact a targeted school choice program and the third state with a school choice victory this month.

“This program is the result of bipartisan statesmanship, putting kids' interests above politics. This has been a record-setting year for school choice, which is great news for children across the country,” declared Clint Bolick, president and general counsel of the Phoenix-based Alliance for School Choice, a national nonpartisan policy organization that supports expanded educational options for disadvantaged schoolchildren.

With a cap of $1 million, the state’s first private school choice program allows corporations to donate up to $100,000 per year to scholarship granting organizations. It passed an overwhelmingly Democrat House and Senate as part of Gov. Don Carcieri’s budget.

“The program makes sense. It saves money for the public schools and it gives poor kids a choice in education and allows them to afford non-public schools,” said Rev. Bernard A. Healey, government liaison for the Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Qualified families must have a household income of 250 percent of the poverty level. Each donating business will receive a 75 percent credit for a one-year commitment and a 90 percent credit for a two-year commitment

The Alliance commends Senate President Joe Montalbano, House Speaker Bill Murphy and Rev. Healey for their tremendous courage in supporting this much needed educational opportunity for Rhode Island's working families.