Action Alert: Education Opportunity Bill Vote Tuesday
Delegate Jimmie Massie’s (R-72, Richmond) HB 2314 establishes a tax credit for businesses donating to non-profit organizations providing scholarships to free and reduced lunch students (family of four earning less than $40,793/yr). Despite fierce opposition from the Virginia School Board Assocation and the Virginia Eduation Association (VEA), the bill passed the House of Delegates 54-45 this week.
This legislation will be voted on in the Senate Finance committee this coming Tuesday! On the heels of yesterday’s well-attended Family Foundation Day at the Capitol and rally focused on school choice,now is the time to pass HB 2314!
Similar scholarship programs in Pennsylvania and Florida have been huge successes. Florida’s program is a prime example, where demand for a program started in 2001 has grown from $50 million to $88 million, providing scholarships for over 33,000 low-income children.
Delegate Massie’s HB 2314 was designed in such a way as to ensure that there will be no negative fiscal impact to the state. In fact, Delegate Massie, a skilled businessman, promises there will be a positive fiscal impact to the state – something valuable in today’s economy and something that not many tax credits can boast. Florida’s similar scholarship program is reported by the Florida Office of Program Analysis and Government Accountability to have saved the state $36 million in just one year (FY2008-09)!
In Florida and elsewhere, thousands of children have been given opportunities for a better education through scholarships created because funding is available. Despite cries of “taking money from children” in public schools, the scholarship programs in other states have in no way negatively affected public schools.
Unfortunately, the Senate Finance committee has been very hostile to any legislation that provides education freedom to families. Last year, a similar bill died in this committee on a 9-6 vote.
In two different polls conducted by or on behalf of The Family Foundation or other education freedom supporters over the past three years, large majorities of Virginians indicated their support for tax credits like the one created in HB 2314.
ACTION: Please contact the members of the Senate Finance Committee today and urge them to support HB 2314!
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