Howie Beigelman
Despite the support of the new governor, Susana Martinez, and a more conservative Legislature, the New Mexico Senate tabled an education reform bill during the just-ended session. Senate Bill 113, sponsored by Senator Mark Boitano, would have provided a tax credit of up to $500 to individuals or couples donating to scholarship organizations for students attending nonpublic schools.
Caving to pressure from the teachers’ union, the bill died quietly.
Supporting education reform as we do, and having seen firsthand the success of similar tax credit programs in other states, we would have been happy to see it pass. Still, rather than disappointment at the bill’s failure, this is an opportunity to craft, pass and enact a better bill – and one far harder for supposed public school advocates to kill.
SB 113 really isn’t controversial. It closely tracks legislation already enacted in neighboring Arizona, as well as Florida, Iowa and several other states. As well, even under New Mexico’s notoriously strict Blaine Amendment, the “no aid” to sectarian schools provision and subsequent state attorney general opinions, the program passes constitutional scrutiny.
Yet the bill is still dead. Borrowing from the Arizona model, the bill could have allowed contributions both to public and nonpublic schools. Arizona public school districts, as well as those in Pennsylvania, which has a corporate tax credit program, have raised millions of dollars under the program. That makes it harder – though by no means impossible – for teachers unions to fight the bill, especially with claims it will hurt public schools.
An even better way
But there is an even better way to draft a tax credit program. Instead of enacting a tax credit for donations, the state should enact a tax credit of up to $500 for any parent or guardian who pays for any qualified educational expense – no matter if that child is in a public or private school. This would do three important things.
- First, it is fully constitutionally kosher under the state’s Blaine Amendment. And at least until Blaine, itself a vestige of 19th Century anti-Catholic bigotry, is repealed, any assistance to parochial school parents will need to be indirect. A tax credit, whether as proposed under SB 113 or as discussed here, easily meets that standard. It isn’t state money, period. So there’s no question of whether public dollars are helping a sectarian cause.
- Next, by allowing the credit for any parent for any qualified expense, including tuition at a nonpublic school, but also tutoring, college prep and other enrichment activities, it does more than get past Blaine. It makes every child in the state and every parent eligible. For those too poor, it could be made refundable to encourage them to spend on education. A constituency that large and that diverse that is in every corner of the state is hard for any legislator to ignore, even if the unions oppose.
- Finally, this program would take some education decisions and put them squarely in hands of parents, and not with bureaucrats in the capital or in education central. We think that’s a better place for them.
We believe all New Mexicans and their policymakers can get behind such legislation. We would welcome the opportunity to work in securing its passage.
Howie Beigelman is deputy director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.