No Arizona Tax Money for Private Schools

by David Safier

(TASL) Arizona’s appeals court handed down an important ruling — that a 2006 state law giving state money to private schools for the education of foster children and children with disabilities is unconstitutional.

To me, the concept is very simple. Be generous with public money in support of public schools. Use private money to support private schools.

Anyone paying attention knew the 2006 law had nothing to do with compassion for children in need. It was a conservative foot in the door for school vouchers. Well, the appeals court slammed that door shut. Short of a change in the state constitution or an unlikely reversal of this unanimous ruling, school vouchers are dead in Arizona.

Today’s Citizen editorial takes this one step further. It says this ruling should be used to get rid of our current back-door voucher system: tax credits for private schools.

I agree. But I’ll let The Citizen do the talking:

Article 9, Section 10 of the Arizona Constitution is unambiguous: “No tax shall be laid or appropriation of public money made in aid of any church, or private or sectarian school . . . ”

In other words, public money is to be used only for public schools, not for private or religious ones.

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The reasoning of the appeals court seems also to cast a shadow on the legality of Arizona’s tax credit program for private schools.

The state offers credits for donations to public and private schools. Individual taxpayers may donate $200 and couples $400 to public schools, and individuals may donate $500 and couples $1,000 to private schools. In both cases, taxpayers receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction in their state tax bills.

(snip)

Advocates for the private school credits say it is not public money that is used because taxpayers send it directly to the schools and it never passes through the state treasury.

But that is a sham.

Tax-credit donations benefit private schools and cause a loss to the state treasury, and thus the state and its taxpayers are financially supporting religious and other private schools.

I have no problem with private schools. Let them teach what they want, the way they want to teach it, with minimal government supervision. Let them teach and preach religion if they wish. But don’t support them with tax dollars, either directly with vouchers or indirectly with tax credits.