A Kansas House committee hearing on program that gives tax credits to individuals and companies donating money for private school scholarships quickly devolved into a two-hour long debate on the merits of and successes of Kansas public schools vs. their private counterparts.
The House Committee on K-12 Education Budget on Wednesday held a hearing on HB 2048, a bill that would raise contribution limits under the scholarship program, match tax credits dollar-for-dollar with donation amounts and potentially double the $10 million cap that currently exists for the program.
Supporters of the program have argued that the bill gives families — especially low-income families at schools with poor performance on state assessments — options to choose better performing schools for their children, especially when comparing the program’s $10 million cap against the nearly $6 billion in state expenditures for K-12 education.
But critics and public school advocates dispute the efficacy of the program in accomplishing that goal and have cautioned that the tax credit program is a stepping stone to bigger measures of school choice, which they say would rob public schools of funding and undermine their mission of providing equitable education to all Kansas children.
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How Kansas’ tax credit scholarship program works
First passed into law in 2014, the Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program currently allows individuals to receive a tax credit up to 70% of the amount donated to an organization granting scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools.
While the program was originally meant to address only the neediest children in the 100 lowest performing schools in Kansas, recent amendments have expanded the program to include students whose household income is below the limit to receive reduced-price lunch, set at 185% of the federal poverty level. Exact income numbers vary based on household size.
Scholarships had originally been limited to those students if they attended one of the state’s 100 lowest-performing public schools, but the program was opened up to any student in kindergarten through eighth grade in a 2021 revision.
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The program currently limits the maximum credit any taxpayer can receive to $500,000, and the program as a whole is capped at $10 million.
The program has never met that limit, but the Kansas Department of Revenue estimates that the program reached about $5 million in approved credits for the 2022 tax year, and an audit last year determined the program’s recent growth would cause it to reach its limit in the next few years.
Bill could double personal limits, $10M cap on Kansas tax credit scholarship program
Under HB 2048, the tax credit would go up from 70% to a dollar-for-dollar match, still subject to the $500,000 limit for any individual taxpayer.
Legislative staff estimate that increase would cause donations, and subsequent tax credits, to go up an additional $5 million this tax year, with an additional $2 million in growth each subsequent year.
For that reason, the bill also contains a provision that would require the state treasurer to unilaterally increase the tax credit program by 20% any time approved credits exceed 80% of the current maximum, up to $20 million.
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The program would become open to high school students for the first time, and new provisions would also allow open the program to any students who are in foster care or whose parents are emergency medical service providers, firefighters, law enforcement or on active duty in the U.S. armed forces,
Several administrators, parents and even students from private schools around Kansas spoke in support of the bill, arguing it allows low-income families access to better opportunities for themselves and their children.
Because of the program, Holy Savior Catholic Academy was able to grow from 146 students in 2018 to 219 students in 2022, said Delia Shropshire, president of the school. Although the school is a part of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, only 24% of the school’s enrollment is Catholic.
“As the law expanded, so has our enrollment, and as it has progressed, so has the ability for students to choose our school,” she said.
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While many may see the tax credit scholarship program as an indictment of public schools as inferior, legislators should instead see the program as being rooted in choice for families, said Terrell Davis, head of school at The Independent School in Wichita. Prior to his leadership at that private preparatory school, Davis was a lobbyist and director of public affairs for Wichita USD 259.
“It’s not about different ideologies,” he said. “It’s not about private or public. This is simply about kids, and what is in the best interest of kids — all kids.”
Public school advocates ask committee members ‘Where’s the beef’ that proves tax credit program success
Meanwhile, representatives from most of the state’s major public education advocacy groups cautioned legislators that the bill, like many other school choice measures, was a misnomer, since parents have always had the right to enroll their children in non-public school options.
Increasing the tax credit limits would not be charity but rather tax avoidance, said Erin Woods, a volunteer for Game On For Kansas Schools, a non-partisan public school advocacy group based out of Johnson County.
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Compared to public schools, which are legally required to accept all students, Woods said private schools are free to turn away families, especially those who do not meet strict religious or ideological criteria or require costly, intensive special education services.
Davis, the private school administrator, had conceded that many private schools are not equipped with the resources to handle such students, but that they work with public schools to handle any needed special education services.
“This bill hands over public tax dollars to schools that do the choosing,” Woods said. “We believe schools receiving public funds should accept and retain all students who apply.”
Mary Sinclair, president of the Kansas State Parent Teacher Association and a Shawnee Mission Board of Education member, said the organization wasn’t necessarily opposed to school choice, but rather hesitated to divert what would have otherwise been state revenue to programs whose successes aren’t clear.
While scholarships for students have to be to private schools either accredited by the Kansas State Board of Education or by another recognized accrediting agency, lawmakers and state agencies have not evaluated the academic success of students or their retention rates once they attend those private schools.
Ann Mah, a Democratic member of the Kansas State Board of Education and former state representative, told the committee that no evidence shows the tax credit program has actually worked to improve student outcomes.
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“The original intent was to allow low-income students struggling public schools to go to private schools that perform better and obtain academic achievement,” Mah said. “So where’s the beef? Where are the numbers that show that it worked — that our Kansas scholarship students actually do better academically in private schools?
“Where is the oversight?” Mah continued. “It’s almost like we don’t want to know. If it was a public school program, you would want data six ways from Sunday, but handing out huge tax breaks to an unproven program (is OK).”
Democrats see Kansas tax credit scholarship program as ‘shell game’ to avoid tax liability
Although Thursday’s hearing was simply to hear testimony and not yet argue the bill, committee members essentially began to debate HB 2048 through sharp questions and criticisms of those presenting testimony.
Republican members pointed out that even if increased to $20 million, the tax credit scholarship program would be a miniscule amount compared to the nearly-$6 billion the state otherwise spends on public schools.
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They jumped to a Kansas State Department of Education figure that shows on average, public schools spend about $19,000 per student, compared to very rough and varying estimates of about $6,000 at private schools.
That comparison, though, is flawed, since the $19,000 estimate includes all sources of school funding, including federal and local dollars, although state funding is still the biggest chunk. The public schools estimate also includes special education students, who might require tens of thousands of dollars in additional services, skewing any average.
The dollar-for-dollar tax credit would also be unlike any other credit offered in Kansas, argued Rep. Mari-Lynn Poskin, a Leawood Democrat in her second year in the House.
The program, then, could be rife for abuse if a pastor were to direct his or her entire congregation to determine their personal and business tax liabilities and donate the equivalent amounts to scholarship-granting organizations, she said.
“Holy tax scams, that is a masterful shell game,” Poskin said. “For the good of the committee, I just want to reiterate that any religious organization or dark money special interest groups can basically divert their entire group’s entire Kansas tax liability, up to those limits, from our state general funds.”
Republicans vow to make 2023 the year for school choice in Kansas
For years, Republican lawmakers have pushed to greatly expand funding for non-public school options in Kansas, but those efforts had made much smaller progress than the lawmakers had hoped for in recent years.
One priority has been to create an education savings account program that would allow families to use public funding for private school tuition and other education expenses.
Lawmakers in Iowa this month rushed to pass a massive school choice bill that allow any Iowa family access to up to $7,598 in taxpayer funds for education savings account. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law Tuesday, and the measure is expected to cost $345 million annually once it is fully phased in over the next four years.
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Speaking at a National School Choice Rally in the Kansas Statehouse on Wednesday, Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, told a group of over 100 private school children that she wants her committee to do the same for Kansas.
“Even though I’m proud to be a Kansas Senator, a Kansas mom and even a Kansas grandma, I wished earlier this week that I was a part of that debate in Iowa, because they had a victory there,” Baumgardner said. “But guess what I want to do with my committee members? We’re going to make sure that you guys go to the schools because it’s your parents’ decision what’s best for you.”
Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican and chair of the House K-12 Education Budget Committee, on Wednesday introduced the Sunflower Education Equity Act, which would create a similar education savings account program in Kansas.
She told The Capital-Journal after the hearing that she was confident Kansans support school choice expansion.
“People want choice,” she said. “We live in a very diverse society, and we’re changing the way that we think, the way that we operate and the way we educate. We have technology that’s abound, and I think we should be progressive enough to allow different types of education.”
Although school choice bills have been popular among the Republican majorities in the statehouse, getting those bills passed has been a decidedly uphill battle, especially in rallying enough votes to overturn any vetoes from Gov. Laura Kelly.
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Throughout her first term, Kelly has voted down most bills related to school choice. She had signed an expansion of the tax credit program reluctantly in 2021, mostly out of a sense of bipartisanship and a bigger goal of compromise to fully fund Kansas’ public schools.
At the start of her second term, Kelly said she would remain staunchly opposed to any measures that could take away from public school funding.
“I am firmly opposed to school vouchers, always have been,” Kelly told reporters Monday. “I do believe that taxpayer dollars ought to be focused on our public school system. I have always believed that, I continue to believe that.”
Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at 785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.