Editorial: Private schools, public tab
THE STAKES:
How about fixing public schools first?
With New York's public education system in turmoil from years of flailing over tests, teacher evaluations, curriculum, taxes and funding, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan have tossed yet another bomb into the classroom — taxpayer support for private schools.
A governor who perennially complains about schools' insatiable appetite for money has suddenly found millions of dollars to burn though for his Parental Choice in Education Act. It's a public-private partnership of the worst sort — the public pays the tab, private schools and wealthy donors reap the benefits.
Perhaps Mr. Cuomo sees this as another way to break what he calls the "public education monopoly" — as if public schools were not something in which we all have a stake. But Mr. Cuomo seems to have conflated public education with his animosity for teachers' unions.
His proposal would allow donors to take a tax credit of 75 percent of their donations to nonprofit education foundations, up to $1 million. Senate and Assembly versions of the bill would allow up to 90 percent. That's money shaved off a person's or a corporation's tax bill — and they could roll it from year to year if the credit exceeded their tax liability.
That this is really a tax break for affluent donors is evidenced by the cumbersome process involved. The state would require taxpayers to apply for the credit before even making a contribution, by first filling out a form saying how much they planned to donate and to whom. It's a program for folks with accountants on speed dial rather than for average New Yorkers who just want to help out their parish school or local charter school.
The governor's program would cost taxpayers $70 million this year, only $20 million of which could go to public schools. The Legislature proposes $150 million, rising to $300 million by 2018; up to half could go to public schools, the other half to foundations or other entities benefitting private schools. But after paying taxes, who's lining up to write another check to public schools?
Half the money given as scholarships would have to go to low income students — defined as children in a household of three making about $55,000 a year. And the rest? That could go to students whose families earn as much as $300,000 a year under Mr. Cuomo's plan, and a whopping $550,000 in the Senate version.
Oh, there is one more benefit for poor families in all this: a $500 tuition tax credit. It's hard to see how such a small amount could make private schools costing tens of thousands of dollars affordable to people struggling just to pay their everyday bills.
What's perhaps most troubling here is how Mr. Cuomo has railed about the need to put public education on a crash diet, even as advocates accuse him of underfunding needy schools in cities and less affluent rural areas. Now, suddenly, a state that supposedly could not afford to keep throwing money at public schools has $50 million to $150 million a year for private and parochial schools?
With the Democratic governor and GOP Senate majority leader pushing hard for this bomb of an idea in the waning days of the legislative session, it falls on the Assembly to remind them that public schools are the public priority. Private schools are just that: private. Taxpayers should not have to prop them up, least of all while the state is hobbling public education.
Editorial: Private schools, public tab - Times Union:
