Daniel Ulibarri
Enacting tax-credit scholarship legislation will enable lower-income and special-needs students to attend schools that will better meet their needs.
Education reform is on the governor’s agenda for the 2012 legislative session. Aside from bills being be introduced on teacher evaluation and reading, efforts are underway to establish the Equal Opportunity Scholarship Act (introduced in the Senate by Pete Campos) and the Special Needs Student Scholarship Act (introduced in the Senate by Jerry Ortiz y Pino).
These bills would allow for tax credits for individuals and businesses that donate funds for scholarships. Organizations can then give scholarships to lower-income and special-needs students to attend the private, parochial and public schools of their parents’ choice.
Passing these bills is important for New Mexico’s economic vitality and our children’s future. Here’s why:
- More than one-third of our students drop out before graduating from high school.
- This must be turned around in order to attract new businesses and business growth in our state and to give our children the opportunities they need to succeed in school.
- This legislation will help provide scholarships that will enable lower-income and special-needs students to attend schools that will better meet their needs. They will be much more likely to stay in school and to develop a solid educational foundation.
According to recent polling data, more than 70 percent of N.M. voters support tax-credit scholarships for children from low-income families. For special-needs students, the support for tax-credit scholarships rose to an astonishing 78 percent in the poll.
High levels of popularity have been experienced wherever tax credit scholarships have been enacted. In 1997, Arizona created an individual tax-credit scholarship program. Within two years the program became revenue neutral and is projected to raise an estimated $58 million annually by 2015 for scholarship donations. Just last year, 30,000 Arizona children used tax-credit-financed scholarships to improve their educations.
Arizona’s program has been seen as a great success for both providing increased education opportunities as well as being a revenue-neutral program for the state.
While money is still tight, the good news is that these tax credit bills will actually have a slight, positive impact on New Mexico’s budget. Rather than sucking resources out of the budget, these bills would give greater educational choice to parents and students, all while slightly improving the budget.
Education tax credits are not a partisan issue. While the bills this session have been introduced by Democrats, many Republicans, including Gov. Susana Martinez, have pledged their support.
This pattern has held in other states that have considered education tax credits. In addition to Arizona, the states of Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Rhode Island saw bipartisan coalitions of legislators and governors work successfully to set up tax-credit scholarship programs.
Ulibarri is executive director of Educate New Mexico.