A bipartisan plan to bring tax-credit scholarships to one of the nation’s largest and bluest states has fallen short, at least for now.The provision did not survive the $142 billion annual spending budget that New York lawmakers adopted early this morning, leaving supporters instead to push for its adoption this summer in the regular session.
The “Education Investment Tax Credit” had been tied to the Dream Act, which would provide state college aid to undocumented immigrants, in a political deal that unraveled in the final days of budget deliberations. Neither survived.
Among those expressing regret was Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, and his reaction was pointed: “Our elected officials must cease allowing public school teachers unions intent on creating a government school monopoly to continue dictating education policy in our state. We turn again to our leaders to do the right thing, and pass the education tax credit, not for any interest group, but for the children of our state.”
That the effort came so close, though, speaks to both its future possibilities and the changing politics surrounding private school choice.
In New York, supporters of the scholarship program have assembled a broad coalition led by prominent Democrats, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and supported by organized labor. Both Cuomo and the state Senate proposed the Education Investment Tax Credit in their budgets. Though the Assembly did not include the plan in its budget, a majority of its members have signed on as co-sponsors.
The scholarship plan allocates roughly $100 million in tax credits that could be used for personal and corporate contributions to help students in both public and private schools — a feature that became one of the plan’s selling points. Half of the contributions under Gov. Cuomo’s tax-credit program go to non-profit scholarship organizations, which would then provide scholarships to participating scholarship schools. At least half of the tax credit scholarships would go to students whose household income for a family of four does not exceed $66,185.
The scholarship has been pushed vigorously by Gov. Cuomo, one the nation’s leading Democrats, who announced his support in a speech in which he declared of public education: “I’m done pandering to the bureaucracy. Let’s think about the student for a change.”
Even more remarkable, perhaps, is that the scholarship coalition includes some 110 nonprofit associations – and 29 labor unions. The nonprofits range from the Association of Historic Black Independent Schools and Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement to the Rochester Urban League and YWCA of New York. The 29 local unions represent a wide array of labor – police, firefighters, iron workers, sanitation workers, plumbers, steamfitters, and paramedics – though not teachers.
Supporters of the scholarship will now turn their efforts toward passing the law through a separate bill, likely in June, and their focus is certain to be on new Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The Senate passed the scholarship, in January, by a 44-16 bipartisan vote. But Heastie, who had previously served as a cosponsor of the legislation, did not allow a floor vote despite outspoken advocacy from some of his members.
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