Lawmakers eye tuition credits

Tuition tax credits are a cheaper form of school choice than charter schools, at least as far as the benefit to state funding is concerned, a legislative fiscal analysis shows. The analysis was shared Wednesday with the Legislature's Interim Education Committee.

"I wanted everyone to have full disclosure on the cost of charter schools," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, a charter school and tuition tax credits advocate and committee co-chairman. "Charter schools are a high-cost alternative to the state budget. Tuition tax credits . . . (are) the low-cost alternative, though the charter schools idea has the support of the Legislature."

But public school officials question the calculations.

"To think that eventually, over 12 years, 87,000 kids are going to leave public schools to go to private schools is . . . way over-estimated," said Patrick Ogden, state assistant superintendent over budgeting. "The fewer students who leave, the smaller the savings to the public education system."

All state income tax revenues go to public schools.

Sound familiar?

Both the data and debate that went another round during Wednesday's meeting were sounded ad nauseam in the Legislature.

But they still strike curiosity — and controversy — as if the discussion never had ended during the session and as if a bill embodying the tax credits concept had not failed.

"It means the issue is not dead," Ogden said. "It will keep coming back until it gets passed," he predicted.

The 2003 bill sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, would have given parents up to a $2,150 tax credit, depending on their financial status. The bill's projected benefits — used as the basis of Wednesday's discussion — would have been extended to parents paying private school tuition or to residents and businesses willing to donate to private school scholarship funds.

Deputy Legislative Fiscal Analyst Mike Kjar estimated most Utah families' income tax liability would qualify them for an average $1,700 credit.

The state spends about $2,850 per student: $2,150 for the weighted pupil unit plus add-on funds, such as money for busing. Districts' local funding varies, but might add a couple extra thousand dollars to that figure.

Looking at state funding only, a $1,700 tax credit would leave some $1,150 in the public schools' pot, without the student to educate.