Ideal world/Real world world of school tax credits

The Arizona legislature is talking about doing away with school tax credits, not this year, but next year, to help close the budget deficit. I've been telling people to give $200 for a single and $400 for a couple to public schools before December 31, but I think the whole tax credit thing is awful. So let me explain the difference between the ideal world and the real world of tax credits.

Ideal World: Abolish School Tax Credits. The only reason for school tax credits is because our schools are woefully underfunded. If I'm given an opportunity to make the state give more money to schools — and that's what happens with the tax credit. I give the money, and the state gives me my money back, which means the state gives more money to schools — I'm going to take it.

But it's a blatantly unfair system. Schools with rich families get lots more tax credit money than schools with poor families. And the credits have to go for extracurricular activities, which means they do nothing to lower class sizes or bring needed supplies and materials into the classroom.

We should abolish the tax credits and fund schools at a decent level, equitably. Our modest goal should be to climb from 49th in school funding to, say, 30th.

The other, really awful part of the tax credits — and one I purposely didn't mention in my earlier posts — is that you can also give tax credit money to private schools that goes toward scholarships. This is a back-door voucher system, pure and simple, a way to support private schools with public funds, to the tune of $54 million last year. This should absolutely be done away with in both the ideal and real worlds.

[Question: I don't know nearly enough about the private school tax credits. Anyone who is better informed, please answer these two questions for me. (1) Can the private schools use the tax credit scholarship money for anyone in the school or only kids from low income families? (2) Do you have to give the credits through intermediary companies that take 10% off the top, or can you give them directly to the private schools?]

Real World: Keep Public School Tax Credits. Until we fund our schools at a reasonable level, let's keep the public school tax credits. If we want to save taxpayer dollars, abolish the $54 million tax dollar giveaway to private schools.