{"id":4965,"date":"2020-01-30T16:16:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T16:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/2020\/01\/30\/scholarship-tax-credits-re-emerge-in-the-2020-session\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T19:49:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T19:49:25","slug":"scholarship-tax-credits-re-emerge-in-the-2020-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/scholarship-tax-credits-re-emerge-in-the-2020-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarship Tax Credits re-emerge in the 2020 Session"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row overlap=&#8221;top&#8221; overlap_distance=&#8221;25px&#8221; padding_size=&#8221;m-padding&#8221;][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=&#8221;strategy4text2&#8243; animation=&#8221;slideInRight&#8221;]At a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/story\/news\/education\/2020\/01\/27\/school-choice-week-parents-students-push-scholarship-tax-credits-kentucky\/4530946002\/\">rally in Frankfort<\/a> this week for \u201cNational School Choice Week,\u201d school choice advocates and policymakers called \u2013 once again \u2013 for Kentucky to adopt scholarship tax credits.<\/p>\n<p>Past legislative sessions have seen <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.legislature.ky.gov\/record\/19rs\/SB118.html\">proposals<\/a> that would establish tax credits for individuals and businesses donating funds to a qualified scholarship granting organization to provide financial support to families to send students to private schools or to provide services to students with special needs. The <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.legislature.ky.gov\/recorddocuments\/note\/19RS\/sb118\/FN.pdf\">estimated cost<\/a> to the state General Fund of these past proposals has <strong>exceeded $200 million<\/strong> \u00a0&#8211; ranging from $21 to $50 million annually.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;25px&#8221;][vc_column_text el_class=&#8221;strategy4text2&#8243; animation=&#8221;slideInRight&#8221; animation_delay=&#8221;.5&#8243;]Similar legislation has now been introduced in the 2020 session as both <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.legislature.ky.gov\/record\/20rs\/HB350.html\">House Bill 350<\/a> and\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.legislature.ky.gov\/record\/20rs\/SB110.html\">Senate Bill 110<\/a>.\u00a0 While official \u201cfiscal notes\u201d have yet to be made available by the Legislative Research Commission, costs to the state General Fund are expected to be similar as prior proposals.\u00a0 There appear to be revisions to past legislation that could impact total costs, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of the \u201cSunset\u201d provision \u2013 In prior years, the credit was permitted for a 5-year period. This year\u2019s proposals include no sunset date.<\/li>\n<li>Reduces the share of first-time scholarships going to students eligible for reduced-price meals, students with special needs, and students in foster care from 90% of the statewide share of reduced-price meal eligible students to simply a majority.<\/li>\n<li>Increase the amount of time a non-public school has to get certified with the Kentucky department of Education from 5 to 8 years in order to participate in scholarship program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;25px&#8221;][vc_column_text el_class=&#8221;strategy4text2&#8243; animation=&#8221;slideInRight&#8221; animation_delay=&#8221;.5&#8243;]We reviewed the detailed ins and outs of these types of scholarship tax credits in <a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/library\/will-scholarship-tax-credits-re-emerge-in-the-2019-session\/\">last year\u2019s post<\/a>.\u00a0 Suffice it to say the opportunity cost of these credits remains significant.<\/p>\n<p>As noted, costs to the state General Fund of past proposals <strong>exceeded $200 million<\/strong>. There is a substantial opportunity cost to enacting such a policy when we already underinvest in the adequacy and equity of our system of public education. To deliver the promise education excellence for every Kentuckian, the Commonwealth must instead reverse years of budget cuts and lost buying power.<\/p>\n<p>Since the Great Recession in 2008, state investments have: declined 33% in our colleges and universities; declined 12% in our K-12 per-pupil base guarantee; and have been inadequate to ensure high-quality early learning opportunities for our youngest children. This declining investment in education &#8211; and our future \u2013 threatens to reverse the progress Kentucky has made in student success and national rankings.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;25px&#8221;][vc_column_text el_class=&#8221;strategy4text2&#8243; animation=&#8221;slideInRight&#8221; animation_delay=&#8221;.5&#8243;]Moreover, Kentucky remains challenged by persistent income inequality, ranking 44th among the states in the number of residents living in poverty. But we know the answer to these challenges, as noted by the University of Kentucky\u2019s Center for Business and Economic Research in the 2018 <em>Kentucky Annual Economic Report<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201cThere is one factor that is more important than all the others, and that is education. By investing in it, we can improve household incomes, individual health, and our overall quality of life. The key to Kentucky\u2019s economic future lies in its human capital.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Which is why we are proposing to increase state investment in education \u2013 from early childhood to postsecondary \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/1-billion-in-additional-education\/\"><strong>$1 Billion by 2026<\/strong><\/a><strong>. <\/strong>\u00a0Kentucky must reinvest, not consider more tax breaks. Tax breaks for which evidence is lacking that this type of intervention is successful in enhancing academic performance.\u00a0 We most focus on investing in what is needed for all Kentucky students, in every community, to achieve at the highest levels.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a rally in Frankfort this week for \u201cNational School Choice Week,\u201d school choice advocates and policymakers called \u2013 once again \u2013 for Kentucky to adopt scholarship tax credits.<\/p>\n<p>Past legislative sessions have seen proposals that would establish tax credits for individuals and businesses donating funds to a qualified scholarship granting organization to provide financial support to families to send students to private schools or to provide services to students with special needs. The estimated cost to the state General Fund of these past proposals has exceeded $200 million  \u2013 ranging from $21 to $50 million annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ed"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5904,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions\/5904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}