{"id":28293,"date":"2011-04-11T23:19:37","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T05:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=28293"},"modified":"2011-04-11T23:19:44","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T05:19:44","slug":"help-all-students-a-better-way-on-education-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/04\/help-all-students-a-better-way-on-education-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Help all students: A better way on education reform"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Howie Beigelman<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite the support of the new governor, Susana Martinez<\/a>, and a more conservative Legislature, the New Mexico Senate tabled an\u00a0education reform bill\u00a0during the just-ended session. Senate Bill 113<\/a>, sponsored by Senator Mark Boitano<\/a>, would have provided a tax credit of up to $500 to individuals or couples donating to scholarship organizations for students attending nonpublic schools.<\/p>\n

Caving to pressure from the teachers\u2019 union, the bill died quietly.<\/p>\n

Supporting education reform as we do, and having seen firsthand the success of similar\u00a0tax credit programs\u00a0in other states, we would have been happy to see it pass. Still, rather than disappointment at the bill\u2019s failure, this is an opportunity to craft, pass and enact a better bill \u2013 and one far harder for supposed public school advocates to kill.<\/p>\n

SB 113 really isn\u2019t controversial. It closely tracks legislation already enacted in neighboring\u00a0Arizona, as well as Florida,\u00a0Iowa\u00a0and several other states. As well, even under New Mexico\u2019s notoriously strict\u00a0Blaine Amendment<\/a>, the \u201cno aid\u201d to sectarian schools provision and subsequent state attorney general opinions, the program passes constitutional scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Yet the bill is still dead. Borrowing from the Arizona model, the bill could have allowed contributions both to public and nonpublic schools. Arizona\u00a0public school districts, as well as those in\u00a0Pennsylvania, which has a\u00a0corporate tax credit\u00a0program, have raised millions of dollars under the program. That makes it harder \u2013 though by no means impossible \u2013 for teachers unions to fight the bill, especially with claims it will hurt public schools.<\/p>\n

An even better way<\/h3>\n

But there is an even better way to draft a\u00a0tax 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 \u2013 no matter if that child is in a public or private school. This would do three important things.<\/p>\n