(The Center Square) – School choice supporters are questioning why one of Wisconsin’s members of Congress is pushing so hard to kill the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit.
Milwaukee Democrat Gwen Moore last week introduced a piece of legislation to end the tax scholarship program and redirect the money earmarked for scholarships toward direct aid to public schools.
“Instead of vouchers and tax cuts for billionaires, we could be investing more in Title I funding to serve low-income students,” Moore said. “We could put these monies into Head Start and special education. We could be securing universal school meals for our babies and not just gutting SNAP and expanding vouchers.”
Brian Jodice. the National Press Secretary for the American Federation for Children, said that is misleading at best and wrong at worst.
"One of the most consistent findings in the research on increases in education spending is that what matters most is not simply how much money you pump into the system but whether those dollars are being directed toward productive uses. That is exactly where legacy federal programs like Title 1 or Head Start run into trouble," he said. "Alongside some of the positive long run outcomes due to these programs is a substantial amount of ineffective and wasteful spending. That is a big part of why the overall research evidence for these programs is so mixed. We should be surprised if pushing even more funding through these aging bureaucratic channels continues to produce less than stellar results and little innovation."
The Education Freedom Tax Credit looks to target education money toward things like tutoring, new computers and other extra help for students, both in private school and public school.
Jodice said much of the opposition from Moore and other Democrats comes because of their absolute support for the country’s teachers’ unions.
"The teachers unions will stop at nothing to protect their stranglehold on education in America. They have politicians at every level singing from the same sheet of music, despite the truth that the Education Freedom Tax Credit will be funded through donations and available for students across educational settings. The reality is that big schooling unions benefit when dollars flow through the system, and students benefit when scholarship dollars flow directly to them and their parents," Jodice explained. "Teachers, schools, and students all stand to benefit under the EFTC, but not the unions, and that is a very good thing."
Wisconsin is not a part of the Education Freedom Tax Credit program. Gov. Tony Evers has refused to opt the state.
