Maybe this is why they’re so desperate to raise the tuition tax credit limit

by David Safier

A funny thing happened on the way to people giving tuition tax credit money last year.

They didn't. Or at least, they didn't give as much.

The amounts of donations received and scholarships awarded in Arizona's private school tax credit program fell for the first time ever in 2009, state records show.

Scholarships funded by the individual tax credits fell by 4 percent. Donations declined 8.5 percent to nonprofit school tuition organizations, which distribute the scholarships.

Our private schools are being propped up by the $51 million a year diverted from state revenues into private school coffers. Remember, when people give money to a School Tuition Organization (STO), it doesn't cost them a penny. All of it — 100% — is taken off their state tax bills.

Take $51 million away from private schools, and you'll see more than a few of them fail due to under enrollment. That, I believe, is what conservatives call "the invisible hand of the marketplace." If an enterprise can't attract customers, it fails. But conservatives turn into born again, private school socialists when it comes to the state subsidizing the private school sector.

Let's not forget, poor Rep. Steve Yarbrough will see his personal piggybank dwindle without all that money coming into his STO, with its 10% administrative fees. Yarbrough manages to stuff money into his director pocket, his landlord pocket, his lawyer pocket, his database-firm pocket. Lord, how many pockets does this man have?

No wonder the Rs want to raise the amount people can give in tuition tax credits from $500 to $1500 per person. And by the way, they aren't going to put upper income limits on who can get the scholarship money. (There must be civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination against the rich, right? They're a minority, you know.) As it stands, a millionaire's child can go to private school 100% free, courtesy of the taxpayer. And they want to allow people to continue "recommending" who will get their scholarship money. The recommendations overwhelmingly go to the wealthier families, since they have friends who make enough to turn their tax dollars into tuition tax credits.

Cut off the scholarships for the rich, cut off the recommendations, and that $51 million will fall by half before you know it.