Skip just posted a nice letter from the Londonderry Superintendent of schools in which the Super appears to lobby the state Senate in opposition to HB1607. This bill establishes an education tax credit for businesses or groups that set up scholarship programs to help offset the costs of non-public school tuition. This could allow more parents to enroll their kids outside of the governments education monopoly and on paper at least take the paltry sum of $3,450.00 per student with them when the business is reimbursed for its donations with a tax credit of that amount. The business is, of course, free to set it’s award at any sum above that at their discretion, but the credit is (I assume) maxed out at $3450.00 per student.
Needless to say, the Super (Nate Greenberg) doesn’t care for the bill. By his calculation each school district will lose money it needs to teach students and would necessarily downshift those costs onto local property taxpayers to make up the difference.
That argument sounds like it might hold water–the entire lobbying question Skip raises aside–but only if taken in the vacuum of the space between the typical bureaucrats ears. I wont revisit all the Super’s arguments here, just follow the link if you feel confused, but in my district, this bill would, on paper at least, be like the school district finding a winning lottery ticket every single year.
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The New Hampshire House and Senate will vote today to override Governor John Lynch’s veto of two bills that sought to allow Granite State businesses to receive tax credits for donations to scholarship funds to help low and middle income students attend private and religious schools.