Here's something a little different on vouchers.
washingtonpost.com
In Virginia, A Tuition Tax Credit Is More Likely
By James Dillard
Sunday, July 7, 2002; Page B03
Despite the recent Supreme Court decision, it is very unlikely that the Virginia General Assembly would pass legislation allowing any form of school vouchers in the immediate future. If anything, it would pass some form of tuition tax credit for parents who send their children to private school. But either initiative faces challenges in the commonwealth, where the legal interpretation of the state constitution's provisions regarding government entanglement with religion has been restrictive.
While carefully crafted voucher initiatives aiding sectarian private schools may pass muster under the U.S. Constitution, our state constitution has a much stronger wall of separation between church and state. And Virginia's current budget shortfall also makes either vouchers or tax credits unlikely. Vouchers would come directly out of the treasury; a tax credit is a less direct and therefore less onerous subsidy, but the money still has to come from somewhere. And politically, there's a fairly good majority, both among citizens and legislators, that oppose public support for private schools.
The Virginia courts have not examined a school voucher initiative since a program was invalidated in the mid-1950s on the grounds that the aid would compel taxpayers to support religious education; that decision also noted the diversion of funds from public to private, sectarian education. The General Assembly's more recent guidance on the matter has come from the Office of the Attorney General, which has said that the legislature, in contemplating any state aid to private education, should be "cognizant of its responsibility to the public school system and its obligation to provide a quality public education program." Although tuition grants or vouchers might be constitutionally permissible, the Virginia constitution makes support for sectarian schools unlikely even if proponents of such initiatives could articulate a "secular purpose" for the aid and could cite independent, private parental choices directing the flow of state aid to a parochial school.
We are not meeting our constitutional responsibility for public education in Virginia. The concept that you would take money from public schools and give it to private ones is abhorrent to me. Some people see the tax credit as more palatable because it is an indirect subsidy. But it would also require funds that would otherwise be available to public education; I'm opposed to that, too. From where I sit, the tax credit is just a dodge; its supporters know they can't get vouchers.
Two years ago in the General Assembly, there was a bill for tax credits that came frightfully close to passage. This past year, because of the shortfall, everyone knew tax credits didn't have a chance. When the legislature reconvenes next January, there will likely be bills for both tax credits and vouchers. With the Supreme Court decision, there will certainly be a renewed effort for tax credits on the part of the school-choice crowd. And since it would be simply a tax deduction, the bill would go to the Finance Committee in the House rather than to the Education Committee. But we'll have less money in the budget next year than this. And I would think the people concerned about public education would make a more determined effort the next time to defeat the tax credit.
There is no way I could justify diverting tax dollars from the public schools when the state is underfunding them by about $1 billion a year, according to last year's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report. Virginia's state constitution requires a commitment to public education. The schools deserve our full support.
James Dillard (R-Fairfax), a former educator, is chairman of the Education Committee in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he has served for 29 years.
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