Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos wants to privatize American education using charter schools, vouchers, tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and portable federal funds. Court and legislative decisions are facilitating these ends. Understanding the school choice agenda and its fiscal, academic, and legal aspects can help…

This paper studies the effectiveness of individual federal income tax credits and deductions that are made available to college students and their families who satisfy income and certain other eligibility requirements. Such credits and deductions are collectively called "tax-based aid." Tax-based aid is found here to have a limited…

Legal scrutiny of school voucher policies initially focused on the establishment clause concerning with allocating public dollars to schools sponsored by religious organizations. In recent years, advocates asserted that the exclusion of faith-based organizations from voucher plans that permit expenditures in secular private organizations violates…

Private school enrollments remain more northern, White, and wealthy than the general school population. Most benefits distributed under the plans examined would go to northern, White, and wealthy families because they provide the largest number of students and pay the most taxes. (Author/IRT)

Proposals granting tuition tax relief to patrons of private elementary and secondary schools have resurfaced as a prominent policy alternative. This paper reviews the tuition-tax-credit deduction policy debate, synthesizes information concerning probable costs and consequences, discusses effects on fundamental social values, and highlights…

Summarizes the activities of the 97th Congress on taxes. Reviews 1981 enactments and 1982 proposals regarding tax cuts, tax increases, indexing of tax brackets, interest earnings, depreciation, and business incentives. Examines tax administration problems and flat-rate tax proposals and discusses the progressive income tax. (Author/RW)

Subsidies to higher education in the United States have long been guided by the belief that policy should encourage college attendance. In principle, if not always in practice, policy has for some time sought to accomplish this by addressing college affordability. General subsidies that keep tuition at public institutions low are coupled with…

Examines tuition tax credit programs in framework of Adam Smith's ideas on the economic impact of established churches. Finds that tuition tax credits would amount to state expenditures to relieve the financial burden of parochial school parents and would allow churches to invest commercially to maintain their charitable functions. (JW)

Reviews existing federal tax policy affecting higher education, suggests guidelines and alternative policies that may be addressed in future debates on tax law reform, and describes the economic and political incentives and disincentives for federal policy-makers in modifying the existing laws. (Author/IRT)

Using regression analysis on 1976-78 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the author estimates demand and supply elasticities for nonpublic school tuition and enrollment. Application of the elasticities to data from a 1978 study indicates that federal tuition tax credits would be more costly than previously projected. (Author/RW)

Fully 40 percent ($5 billion) of Georgia's FY 2000 general funds budget is for K-12 education. There is increased funding for a homestead exemption, expansion of the HOPE (higher education) Scholarship Program, capital outlay projects, remedial assistance programs, and instruction of limited-English speaking students. (MLH)

Briefly outlines the history of using public funds for private education and examines the development of related judicial doctrine, using several illustrative cases. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court's concern about "excessive entanglement" has weakened, sparking a heated, unresolved debate about the original intent of the…

Identifies the political forces affecting state decision making during four Minnesota legislative sessions--1955, 1971, 1976, and 1981--that either passed or retained measures for private school tax deductions. The study focuses on the central features of the legislative process and the implications of those features for education policymaking.…

To examine the impact of enrollment shifts between public and private schools on public school expenditures per pupil, 1970-71 data were gathered on private school tuition and enrollment, public and parochial school expenditures, and demographic variables. Analysis using an economic model indicated few effects on public school expenditures. (RW)