School Sports Play the Tax Credit Game

by David Safier

(TASL) This is going to be one of those rare posts where I don’t know where I stand on an issue. I have to admit, I’m confused.

The top story in today’s Star sports section is, TUSD athletes pay more to play this fall. TUSD is raising its pay-to-play fee from $30 per sport to $50. The max any family can pay is $200, no matter how many of their children participate, and students whose family can’t afford the fees will still be allowed to play.

So far so good. Anyone who read earlier posts of mine know I’m skeptical about spending our limited education dollars on intramural sports when we need more and better paid teachers, new textbooks, up-to-date equipment and all those other things that are central to a child’s education. Until the state comes to its senses and funds schools at a reasonable level, the first cuts should go to the programs that have the least educational value. By my way of thinking, the first on the chopping block should be the very expensive, let’s-make-this-look-as-close-to-professional-as-we-can competitive sports programs. So making the families pay more of the cost is OK by me.

But here comes the part that has me scratching my head. The article states, “The fee is a tax credit for parents.” That means this is not so much a fee paid by parents as a transfer of some extra state money to Tucson School District.

Tax credits come straight off the taxes you owe. Here’s a simple example: A family spends $200 to participate in sports. When tax time rolls around, the family owes $2,000 in taxes. Take away the $200 tax credit, and the family’s tax bill is $1800. The pay-to-play fee doesn’t actually cost the family a penny.

To be sure I got this right, I contacted the reporter at the Star, Becky Pallack. Sure enough, that’s how she understood the situation as well. But just to be certain, she suggested I call TUSD, which I did. Julie Versluis in the Finance Office confirmed my understanding, but then she said something that made a light bulb go on over my head. When parents pay for their children to participate in sports, she said, they get a tax credit receipt, and that allows them to deduct the amount from the taxes they owe.

Sound familiar? It should if you do what every taxpayer who cares about public education should do — give $200 per person or $400 per couple to a public school or schools of your choice before December 31 at no cost to you. It’s a tax credit, so you’ll get 100% of the money back when you pay your taxes, and the schools get a couple hundred much-needed dollars in their coffers.

The pay-to-play money comes out of that $200-400. And that’s where I’m flummoxed.

On the one hand, I encourage everyone to give money to the public schools of their choice and get a tax credit. (The bad part about the tax credit system is — surprise! — it favors the schools in the wealthiest communities, which tend to have more people giving money, but at least it’s an infusion of much needed cash. It’s not perfect, but you take what you can get.)

On the other hand, I want parents to feel the financial pain of paying for their children’s sports participation. If they get hit where it hurts — in the wallet — they might realize that schools need more money and everyone should bear part of the burden. But what actually happens is nothing more than a wink-wink-nudge-nudge between schools’ athletics departments and the parents. The parents pretend to pay, but eventually, the money comes out of the state coffers, not their pockets.

The other problem is, when you give your educational tax credit dollars, you can specify that it be used for art, music, field trips, sports or other activities of that kind. But the pay-to-play credit goes straight into the sports program. If the parents had a choice, some of them might have placed it elsewhere.

This tax-and-spend liberal says, Arizona needs to give our schools the money they need to give our children the best possible education, which means the state government needs more money. The best way to do that is to raise taxes on those who can afford it. In the meantime, let’s figure out every way we can to funnel more state dollars into our underfunded schools — in other words, let’s exploit the educational tax credit system for all it’s worth. But forcing those dollars into competitive sports programs is upping the funding for the school program with the least educational value while taking it from other programs that are less visible and exciting but pack more educational bang for the buck.

Like I said, I’m confused.