Good news on the tuition tax credit front

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by David Safier
The Catholic Tuition Organization for the Diocese of Phoenix, a School Tuition Organization that receives tuition tax credit donations and gives them out as scholarships, never used to allow donors to recommend who the money should go to. But their funding grew stagnant, so they recently decided to accept recommendations. But now they're suspending the new policy — not ending it, just suspending it — in light of recent stories about abuses of the recommendation system by parents, STOs and private schools. Anyone who donated money and recommended the recipient can ask for their money back.

Though the wording of this passage is confusing, it sounds like the Jewish Tuition Organization is going even further.

The Jewish Tuition Organization has taken a dim view of the practice. On its Web site, the organization notes, "Any funds received by a student from a 'pass-through' STO that are directed to a specific student will be offset against any funds awarded to that student by the JTO."

Beginning next year, schools supported by the Jewish Tuition Organization will not accept scholarships from school-tuition organizations that allow recommendations, the organization said.

Meanwhile, ChamBria Henderson, whose Arizona Scholarship Fund was labeled as one of the worst offenders in the excellent East Valley Trib series at the beginning of August, is sticking to her guns. She thinks the current system is just great, that she's doing well by doing good. I won't waste the space quoting her here, because almost every phrase that comes out of her mouth uses that circular, half ridiculous syntax Sarah Palin has made famous. This may be more than a coincidence, I find. On her Facebook page among the people Henderson says she is a fan of, the number one politician is Sarah Palin. When you continue to her favorite Celebrities/Public Figures, Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich are at the top. (If you go to verify this information, by the way, you'll find she no longer shares information like this with anyone but friends.)

NOTE: I'm encouraged to see that good investigative reporting can result in changes in a corrupt system, but I'm no fan of tuition tax credits, even if they clean up their act. They're back door vouchers, a way to funnel tax money to private schools, and I would love to see the practice ended. However, if that's not going to happen, the money should at least be spent legally and wisely, and scholarships should be means tested so they go to children from low income families.

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