Montana’s Public Schools do a great job for most students, but as every parent knows, children aren’t all the same. One likes to run, the other likes to sit in the corner with a book. One likes to play videogames while the other prefers football. And while most do very well in public schools, there are some who do not.
Unfortunately, nearly 15,000 students drop out of Montana schools every year. So what’s the solution when one of our wildly diverse youngsters isn’t thriving in their public school? Forty-two other states have implemented various forms of school choice. School choice refers to a broad range of policy proposals aimed at providing some diversity in the field of education. As great as Montana’s public schools are, it’s unrealistic to hold them to a standard where they have to be the perfect fit for every single child. Some children just need a different environment and school choice is about providing options.
January 24th – 30th was National School Choice week. The time when parents, student, and policy makers from across the nation celebrate the concept of a perfect educational fit for each and every child. Here in Montana the past year saw some exciting progress on school choice. The legislature passed Senate Bill 410 which allows a tax credit for donations by private individuals to private scholarship funds that can pay for students to attend private schools. This is exactly what school choice is all about. If our kids are struggling is a standard public school, then privately funded scholarships can help them afford that work. Lawmakers said, “It’s working in other states, and it can work in Montana too.”
Unfortunately Governor Bullock’s Department of Revenue threw a monkey wrench in the works claiming tax credits were the same thing as government spending and arguing that the bill was an unconstitutional appropriation of public dollars to religious schools. They then passed rules barring any religious schools from participating, that’s over 95% of the private high schools in the state. Fortunately, this issue has been litigated all the way to the United States Supreme Court which rules tax credits are not appropriations, and therefor tax credit scholarships are perfectly constitutional. Law suits challenging the Montana Department of Revenues action have been filed in both state and federal court, and we anticipate a quick and decisive victory!
Another form of school choice is public charter schools – they are public schools typically emphasizing a particular discipline such as the arts, technology, science, or a particular trade. Charter schools have more freedom to innovate and they’re also held to a higher standard of accountability.
Another cutting edge idea is education savings accounts where 70-90% of the dollars traditionally used to educate a child are put into an account to be used at any accredited school of the family’s choice. Since we spend roughly twelve thousand dollars on average each year to educate a child, these dollars add up fast, and any money leftover can be spent on college tuition.
School choice has always been controversial when someone has a monopoly, competition looks scary. The end result though is that everyone improves; the public schools, the alternatives, and most of all our kids. Forty-two other states have school choice and last year, Montana became the 43rd. Join us as we seek to ensure that every child is allowed to find their perfect educational fit!
As a staunch conservative, I find this blog to be highly inaccurate although I appreciate the idea of choice immensely. The issue isn’t with the Governor, it lies with the State’s Constitution that expressly prohibits such state/private ties in monies or funds and not a ‘monkey wrench’ from the Dept of Revenue?
Montana Constitution Article X
Section 6. Aid prohibited to sectarian schools.
(1) The legislature, counties, cities, towns, school districts, and public corporations shall not make any direct or indirect appropriation or payment from any public fund or monies, or any grant of lands or other property for any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.
Also Bill 410 is not characterized correctly in your piece. The bill made no reference to alternatives outside of public school, which is listed in the bill’s definition as the ‘eligible public school’ or ‘qualified education provider’ that is essentially accredited through the state of Montana providing ‘state standardized assessment test.’ Within the purpose of the bill (copied from the state’s website) is not for the traditionally defined private school. (http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2015/billpdf/SB0410.pdf). At issue is the intent of the bill which Ironically is written out in SB 410.
SB 410
Section 1. Purpose. Pursuant to 5-4-104, the legislature finds that the purpose of innovative educational programs is to enhance the curriculum of public schools with supplemental private contributions through tax replacement programs. The tax credit for taxpayer donations under [sections 1 through 6] must be administered in compliance with Article V, section 11(5), and Article X, section 6, of the Montana constitution.
Hello,
The problem with your argument is that a tax credit is not an appropriation. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on that as well as Montana courts. The case law, in fact, is unanimous — without a dissenting case. Tax credits are not appopriations. So that section of the Montana constitution does not apply.
The fact that tax credits are not an appropriation also agrees with common sense. A tax credit is money the state chooses not to tax. If the state doesn’t tax it, I never pay it. If the funds never leave my checking account and enter into the state’s checking account, then it is not possible for the state to spend those funds. The state cannot appropriate money it never owns.
In addition to agreeing with court rulings and common sense, the fact that tax credits are not appropriations agrees with present practice. Montana has many tax credit programs that include donations to religious organizations among the eligible organizations. Foremost among them are the college contribution credit which is given for donations to private universities, including religious schools; the qualified endowment credit, which is given for supporting the endowment of any one of more than a thousand non-profits, including religious non-profits; and the elderly and dependent care credits, which are given for expenses related to care of either group at any facility, including faith-based ones.
As for the idea that SB 410 made no reference to any alternatives outside of public school, you’ll find the text of the bill here:
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2015/billhtml/SB0410.htm
I invite your attention to section 8, definitions, and particularly the definition of Qualified Education Provider. You might particularly enjoy sub (a) of that definition.
(7) “Qualified education provider” means an education provider that:
(a) is not a public school;
In short, SB410 is very clearly not in violation of Montana’s constitution based on unanimous case law including rulings already issued on SB410, based on common sense, and based on the state of Montana’s present practice. That is why the court has already ruled in favor of SB 410 applying to religious schools, and why we anticipate continued favorable rulings as the case moves through the courts.