Tuition tax credit/STO updates

by David Safier
The problems with tuition tax credits and the Student Tuition Organizations that administer them is a subject not likely to go away soon.

• The blogger, Matthew Yglesias, discussed the East Valley Trib's investigative series, Rigged Privilege, on his blog yesterday. Yglesias is a blogger's blogger, someone who covers a wide range of national issues with a great deal of thought and insight. I don't know the size of his readership, but he's very influential. Other national bloggers go through his posts looking for ideas.

  Yglesias ends his post with the highest praise a blogger can give the MSM: "Read the whole thing. This is the kind of serious investigatory work that, unfortunately, we’re seeing less-and-less of." I would add that it was a citizen investigator, Jen Darland, who alerted the media to the situation, and BfA kept the story alive and expanded its scope.
• The Arizona Education Association is in court questioning the constitutionality of corporate tuition tax credits. It is "citing the Tribune’s investigation, Rigged Privilege, to support its argument that corporate tax credits for private school tuition have a 'negative impact on public school financing and do not save taxpayers money.'" There is enough difference between private and corporate tuition tax credits to make this a less than perfect comparison, but the Trib's work should help their case.
• The state legislative committee looking into tuition tax credits and STOs, formed after the Trib's series was published, will be holding a public meeting Monday, September 21, in the morning. It will be carried live on the state website.

All of this is testimony to the power of the press, the blogosphere and concerned citizens who put forth the time and effort to try and make a difference.