by Jonathan Butcher
January 22, 2018
How can we give every child the chance to succeed? Millions of families across the U.S. will be asking just this question this week during National School Choice Week, the annual celebration of opportunities in education around the country.
Families in Rhode Island can be even more specific: How can a state law enacted a dozen years ago to help low-income students find quality private schools help more children? Churches and private school leaders in and around Providence are hosting events this week to answer this question.
Rhode Island has allowed businesses to make charitable contributions to nonprofit scholarship organizations since 2006. Businesses receive a tax credit worth a portion of their contribution. The scholarship organizations use the funds to award K-12 private school scholarships to low-income students. Nearly 20 states, including Arizona and Florida, have similar laws.
Today, Rhode Island’s law is more than a decade old, and scholarship organizations award some 400 scholarships each year. But with public school enrollment topping 130,000 students, the scholarship organizations are reaching less than 1 percent of the state’s public school students.
In Arizona, and Florida, closer to 5 percent of students are using tax credit scholarships (as a percent of the total public school enrollment, the figures are nearly 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively)—giving Rhode Island something to aspire to. The percentage may sound small, but in Arizona, this means scholarship organizations award approximately 70,000 scholarships annually. More than 100,000 Florida students use a tax credit scholarship.
Here are three ways Rhode Island can change state policy in an effort to give more children the chance to find an excellent education:
Rhode Island policymakers should look to successful policies in other states as they consider how to help more students pursue the American Dream. The state’s private school scholarships are a great start, but policymakers should build on the existing policy to help more children succeed.
Jonathan Butcher is a Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute.
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