Education Credit for All

To the Editor:

Often known as a place “where good ideas go to die,” our New York State government in Albany seems to be staying true to form as the Executive and the Legislature appear to be running out the clock on a popular bipartisan proposal for an education tax credit. The Education Investment Tax Credit would increase and promote investment in education by encouraging more charitable donations, donations that benefit all students regardless of whether they attend a private or public school. The bill that has previously passed in the New York State Senate has more than 100 sponsors in the New York State Assembly and would annually provide up to $300 million, or less than 0.1 percent of the state budget, for tax credits at least half of which would be set aside to increase donations for public school students and their teachers.

This smart proposal promotes New York’s interest and commitment to providing the highest quality education to all children throughout the state while increasing much needed revenue and private sector resources for education without raising taxes. Nineteen other states and the District of Columbia already have similar programs for tuition-paying families and the bill enjoys widespread support from a divergent coalition of business leaders, community groups, many organized labor unions, faith organizations and both tuition and non-tuition paying parents.  

The basic premise for this legislation has been bounced around the state capital for decades. As a child, I vividly remember my blue-collar Irish immigrant parents sending postcards to Albany throughout the 1970s and 1980s advocating for tuition tax credits that would have helped them as they sacrificed to put their 10 children through years of Catholic school education. As a parent of four school-aged children attending Catholic schools, I find myself embracing the same cause.

The time is now for a modest education tax credit to be passed and signed into law before the Legislature adjourns for the fast approaching election season when, to paraphrase one former resident of the Executive Mansion in Albany, the prose of governing gives way to the poetry of political campaigns.  

Brian Browne

West Hempstead