Education tax credit could pack bigger punch than vouchers

Education tax credit could pack bigger punch than vouchers

Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 1 February 2001
By Diana Jean Schemo
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/10201NBUSH-EDUC-NYT.html
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON - When George W. Bush announced his plan for educational reform last week, one feature attracted sharp controversy: a proposal to use vouchers for poor children in persistently failing schools.

But another item with even more far-reaching effect, one especially dear to Bush's core constituency of suburban Republicans and religious conservatives, caught little notice.

Buried in his blueprint for overhauling education, Bush proposed allowing parents to deduct up to $5,000 of their yearly income to pay the educational expenses of each of their children attending private elementary and secondary schools.

"The political fire has been aimed at the voucher portion of the education program, when in reality the tax credit part of the bill could have a much larger real-world impact," said Clint Bolick, litigation director at the Institute for Justice, a conservative group that supports vouchers and tax breaks. "It may be that extending tax credits would be a politically easier way to advance school choice."

With Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, appearing to acknowledge that his plan for school vouchers may not survive intact, attention here has turned to the tax-deductible education savings accounts as the next front in the battle over school choice.

"Vouchers may have hit their peak in terms of acceptance," said the director of the Center for Education Policy, Jack Jennings, who opposes the expansion of education savings accounts - what some opponents have labeled a "back-door voucher plan" - as well as vouchers. "The real action to aid private schools will be in the tax route."

A spokesman for the administration said the deductions would apply to individuals with incomes up to about $100,000 and to couples who together earn up to $160,000. He said eligible expenses would include private, including religious, school tuition, as well as computers, books, tutoring and transportation for private and public school children.

Educators said the model for Bush's proposal appeared to be a bill sponsored by the late Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., who died last summer.