This is a follow up to yesterday’s post where I discussed the AZ Republic coverage of Tuition Tax Credits. The Republic‘s anchor article for the series has a terrific interactive map showing private schools around the state and how much tax credit money each gets in the form of scholarships for students. You can move around the map and resize it to look at schools in any area in the state. The graphic at the top of this post is a screen shot of the map’s Tucson area, with an example of the information given for one school. It’s not the real thing. If you want to use the interactive map, go to the Republic article.
The color of each dot indicates how much money a school receives in tuition tax credit scholarships. I made a list of the top two categories. Schools with red dots get over $1 million. Schools with dark orange dots get between $300,000 and $1 million. Here are the five red dot schools in order of money received.
Salpointe Catholic High School: 3,092,476.63
Pusch Ridge Christian Academy: 2,119,947.33
San Miguel Catholic High School: 1,372,303.94
Desert Christian Schools: 1,130,907.33
St John the Evangelist School: 1,006,454.60
All of them are religiously affiliated. Among the 16 schools with dark orange dots, only two are nonsectarian. [Note: The Gregory School was named St. Gregory’s until recently. It’s always been nonsectarian and changed its name to avoid confusion.] [Correction: The Gregory School was connected with the Episcopal Church until it separated in 1987.]
Santa Cruz Catholic School; 971,419.81
Tucson Hebrew Academy :876,273.80
The Gregory School: 845,407.76
St Ambrose Catholic School: 789,289.29
Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic School:723,504.59
Casas Christian School: 690,544.92
St Augustine Catholic High School: 652,422.21
Imago Dei Middle School: 637,396.00
Green Fields Country Day School: 627,263.59
St Elizabeth Ann Seton School: 589,792.63
St Cyril Catholic School: 475,511.09
St Michael’s Parish Day School: 475,039.35
SS Peter & Paul Catholic School: 473,179.01
St Joseph Catholic School: 375,418.45
Calvary Chapel Christian School: 350,753.25
Immaculate Heart School: 316,679.88
If there was ever any question whether the majority of vouchers flow to students attending religious schools, this list should lay it to rest. In Arizona and across the country, between 70 and 80 percent of private schools are religiously affiliated, and since they tend to have larger enrollments than nonsectarian schools, the percentage of students attending religiously affiliated schools is even higher.
Two of the largest School Tuition Organizations are Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, run very profitably by Sen. Steve Yarbrough, and Catholic Education Arizona. Their names tell you which schools are going to get scholarship money from them.
If you think it’s OK for the taxpayers to fund vouchers for religious schools, all this is fine with you. I think it’s a terrible idea. So does the Arizona constitution, which states, “No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise, or instruction.” Arizona’s Tuition Tax Credits and Education Savings Accounts skirt the constitution by either stopping the money before it actually makes it into the state coffers (Tax Credits) or taking the money out of the state coffers and into a separate account before it’s used to pay for education (ESAs). The courts say both programs are OK constitutionally, but the question of whether taxpayers should foot the bill for religious education remains.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2015.
1. The Gregory School has not “always” been non-sectarian. It was originally Episcopalian.
2. Much of what goes on in “religious” schools is not “religious” instruction. In a typical Catholic high school day, for example, the students might spend 45 minutes on “theology,” and the other 5-6 hours in regular academic subjects just like those offered in the local public high school. So, if the parents enrolling kids in these schools are relieving the local public school of the cost of educating those kids in math, English, history, foreign languages, etc., why can’t some of the funds they are saving the state be applied in a high school delivering valid instruction in those subjects? The purpose of providing the state’s youth with a good education is being fulfilled — and in many cases, it is being fulfilled better and more effectively than it would have been fulfilled for those same students if they had attended their “neighborhood” public schools.
I’m uncertain what purpose related to supporting the delivery of good education in the state of Arizona is fulfilled by you continuing to attack the state’s tax credit programs and the schools they fund, David. Perhaps it’s just that there’s not much that’s encouraging to say about the state of service delivery in TUSD. In this context, you turn your attention to trying to undermine the validity of the funding streams supporting some of the schools to which TUSD families are fleeing?
A better course of action would be to write in support of legitimate reform of the district. If TUSD were at some point able to start meeting students’ needs more fully, families wouldn’t have to pull kids out and find other schools which are less convenient and (even with tax credits) more expensive to attend that the “neighborhood” public school.
What portion of the tax credit income reported is actually being used to fund NEED BASED financial aid programs in these schools? What portion is being used for the wealthy to give themselves tuition breaks they don’t actually “need”?
(Of course, in a context in which tuition & expenses at top ranked private liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Pomona, etc.) now costs in the neighborhood of $240K per student for four years of undergraduate education, which families WON’T need financial aid, when you consider the need to save for college education? 2 kids, they need over $500K; three $750; four over $1 million if they don’t want to have to be dependent in some fashion on “financial aid” that may or may not include seeing their children have to take out burdensome student loans….
Taking money from Peter’s school to pay Paul’s school and them blaming Peter’s school for doing a poor job. Right…
The money only belongs to “Peter’s school” when the student is enrolled in “Peter’s school.” If “Peter’s school” performs well enough to retain the student’s enrollment, they get the money. If they don’t meet the students’ needs, the student leaves, and so does that student’s per-pupil funding.
I do not understand how it is public district schools think they “own” the money that goes along with enrolled students, after the families of these students choose to dis-enroll these students. Could you explain that to us, Bob Rodriguez?
Puzzled you have hit the nail on the head. These educrats have learned from bureaucrats how to try to “own” Americans. They will pyramid scam you from taxation to handouts to printing more money. This thing is going to collapse.
Since the purpose of the vouchers is to give students a better education than they got in their government run alternative, any data on outcomes ? Do the ” voucher kids” do any better in standardized tests than the kids who stay behind ? Seems like that is the real issue, not the pedigree of the school the parents choose. To paraphrase Bruce Arians when he hired a female coach for the Cardinals “… I don’t care if they go to Green Hornet prep, as long as they improve…”.
Thank you, Bill, great point! How do those private school kids perform on the high-stakes standardized tests that are used to label public students, schools, districts and teachers as passing or failing?
Oh, wait a minute…private schools don’t give those tests? How can that be? Those hedge-fund backed tests tell us everything we need to know about the quality of education that students are receiving, right? Private schools must be CLAMORING for them. How can private school student parents have any idea whether those private school teachers are doing a good job or not? How can they choose a school when it doesn’t have an A to F letter grade slapped over the front door? This is discrimination, pure and simple.
Those tests are paid for with Arizona tax dollars and gosh darn it, private school parents are tax payers, too. Maybe we just haven’t heard of the push from private schools to get those tests in their schools, too. Can someone link to a Facebook page? I’m all for equity in education and would support them.
Seriously, folks, if “accountability” in the form of high-stakes tests is necessary to know whether tax dollars are well-spent in public education, the same measure should be linked to the tax dollars flowing into private schools. This is an acid test. If testing was really a valid and valuable means of evaluation, the private schools and their parents would want it. The fact that they don’t want it tells you all you need to know.
One only has to look at the context of Safiers daily drum best. He doesn’t cite quality and outcome. He cries for mass control.
“Teacher, leave them kids alone!” Pink Floyd
This program is blatantly unconstitutional. But, as much as I hate seeing my tax dollars used to fund religious schools, especially Catholic, when the alternative is Adelita’s personal fiefdom of TUSD I do sympathize with those who want a choice.
Bill Sinnott wrote:” Do the ” voucher kids” do any better in standardized tests than the kids who stay behind ?”
I can answer in one case. After attending public grade school through 5th grade, my son was switched to St. Michaels and then Salpointe. The reasons had to do with a more rigorous curriculum and greatly reduced behavioral problems from other students (not at all for religious reasons). This year he will finish his PhD and was hired by San Francisco State University to head one of their programs.
While it cost us more out of pocket, we wanted my son to be challenged in a way we didn’t feel he could get in public schools and in this case it paid off.
Do the voucher kids do better? Of course they do! They get to go to schools where the bar is higher. Why is the bar higher at private schools? Because they can exclude any child that is difficult; behaviorily, educationally, socially. They take the cream of the crop and then point to how much better they perform. This is a two- tiered educational system. The haves get a better education (at mostly tax payer expense) the have nots get a worse education. Great if you are already privileged, not so great if you already have two strikes against you… -12 years of Catholic Education
“What purpose,” thank you for the information about the Gregory School. It separated from the Episcopal Church in 1987, according to information I found on the web. I’ll try to have the correction in the post sometime this morning. (I can’t make changes to a published post myself.)
The question about how much tax credit money goes to needs-based students is a good one. I don’t have a definitive answer. According to the Republic’s anchor article,
“32 percent of the scholarship money given through the individual tax-credit programs goes to children of “low income” families, defined as those earning 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $44,862 for a family of four, according to data acquired by The Arizona Republic. The corporate tax credit for “low income” families has a more-generous definition — a family of four can earn as much as $82,996.”
As for comparing the quality of education at district, charter and private schools, as some commenters have mentioned, it’s a difficult process, especially since private schools aren’t required to give the state’s high stakes tests, even to taxpayer-supported voucher students. However, studies of the voucher programs in Milwaukee and Washington D.C. have struggled to find significant overall differences between the achievement in public and private schools. Two studies done by President George W. Bush’s administration couldn’t find any significant difference, except in one group of schools. Conservative Christian private schools formed the single lowest performing group.
Here is a post from the Diocese of Tucson website — it is part of a job description for an open position at a school near Ajo and I-10 (within TUSD boundaries).
“…St. John the Evangelist has grown. In 5 years enrollment has increased from 132 students to 315. Students in our kindergarten classes are testing in the top quartile of the nation for reading and math. In other grades achievements gaps are being closed. The school has a full-time principal, assistant principal, intervention teacher, nurse, and a teaching and learning coach from the University of Notre Dame. Already more than 120 families have inquired for…2015-16.”
Do you consider yourself responsible, David, in arguing against the funding streams that allow the families in this neighborhood to access this school? Think about what you are actually arguing for — and against — in terms of the REALITIES of the educational opportunities available to these families and what they would encounter in their “neighborhood” public school, if they elected to enroll their children there.
Families have a responsibility to do the best they can for their children — and that includes enrolling them in the school that will best respect and value who they are as people (including their ethnic / religious heritage) and best support their intellectual and academic development. I fully support the tax dollars I pay being used to enable families to attend “St. John the Evangelist.”
(Jana — the Catholic schools do administer standardized tests and deliver data on outcomes to the parents of their enrolled students.)
(Belinda — the Notre Dame ACE Academies (including St. John the Evangelist) and San Miguel are both serving populations that are not among “the haves.” The Catholic church has a long standing commitment to social justice and its schools systems are not for “the haves” alone.)
Wise-Guy et aux Congratulations to your success.
Your son may have had his hands on the books but it was your constant guidance and counseling that gave direction to his education. My bet he would have been just as successful at any school because of your participation in his education. The cry is for the children whose parents or significant adult doesn’t know or understand how important their role in the education process.
In a quiet way we can all participate, encourage and work with the parents stressing the importance of education and demonstrate in quiet ways our concerns to all children their accomplishments in education.
Education is all our responsibility, not just the funding but the total process of gaining for a total enlightened community. Ignorance has no place.
Unfortunately when you look to State testing to post results, once again I shudder to think of that fraud based on agendas. We have a former Secretary of State that lied and used personal emails for top clearance information and she still won’t release all for scrutiny.
I’m sure there will be big hearted people selling upgrades of test results to schools for money.
That is exactly why ALL parents deserve a choice in where their child goes to school. But don’t be confused. It has been driven by the failings of the public schools. They became institutional warehouses and that hurts kids.
@ Snapshot from One West Side Catholic School
You said: “I fully support the tax dollars I pay being used to enable families to attend ‘St. John the Evangelist.’ “
I, however, do not support tax dollars that I pay being used to enable families to attend a private school especially any school that teaches any type of religious curriculum – even if it is for just 45 minutes a day. You see the problem here? It’s MY money going into a PUBLIC fund and it should NOT be used as a handout to aid private schools and their conflict of interest political supporters in dismantling the public school system (see Sen. Steve Yarbrough). If my tax money is going into the pockets of these private schools then I want to see the results. I want to see the test scores as well as what they send to the parents. I want to see how that money is being spent on education and administration. I have a right to that, do I not? I’m paying for it, aren’t I? You want to send a kid to a private school or a private school that has any type of religious curriculum? Go right ahead. Pay for it out of your own pocket but don’t go picking my pocket to do so.
I’m not sure it is your money blissinfinite. I think it is tax money paid by another citizen. The State of AZ allows them to make a choice with THEIR money, to go into the general fund or receive a credit towards taxes they owe.
I don’t think that our “pockets have been picked.” In fact, if this small percentage puts a child outside of public education, the balance of the cost is born by the parents, not the taxpayers. We save thousands per child in education expenses.
So in essence you saved money. Can you loan me some?
@Dan Hyde
Yes, it is money that comes out of my pocket in the form of a tax credit given back to the parents that contribute to a private school tuition organization. They send in money to that organization and then receive a 100% tax credit on that money. That is a state tax hole that my dollar has to stretch to fill. I don’t see how that is saving me money, as you say. My tax money is supporting that contribution and I’m not okay with that. Let that person contribute but without a tax credit.
@blissinfinite:
We live in a democracy. The majority of democratically elected legislators in this state have approved of your tax money being used in this way. You see the problem here? If you object to tax credit policies, your recourse is to complain to the legislature and / or to work for the campaigns of those who share your opinion. When many public schools are not producing teaching and learning conditions with which families are satisfied, the job of educating kids who do not want to be enrolled in their local public schools is being “outsourced.” That is what’s happening. It is precisely the reality that is being described in the post about St. John the Evangelist.
RE your concern with outcomes: the Catholic schools have testing data that can be shown to demonstrate the quality of academic outcomes they produce. If testing outcomes are what you’re interested in in terms of yield for money invested, the data is there. I’m not sure what the Diocese’s policies are on publishing outcomes. The State of Arizona does not require them to — nor does it require them to test, but they choose to do so. What the State of Arizona chooses to require of schools that benefit from tax credits is a matter that needs to be taken up with the Arizona legislature. They absolutely should be requiring more accountability from schools that receive tax credits, and they should be overseeing the quality of education offered in these schools better than they do. Not all schools benefiting from tax credits are as responsible as the Catholic system is.
Please do not assume that all those who favor SOME use of tax credits to fund FINANCIAL AID PROGRAMS in ACADEMICALLY RESPONSIBLE alternative schools approve of the way Yarborough and his ilk operate their STO’s. My request is that the discussion of policy relating to tax credits become more nuanced and more aware of differences between the different institutions that benefit. Some are responsible and there is solid evidence that they contribute beneficial things to the education of children in this state, some clearly are not responsible and do not contribute beneficial services to our community. It would, in my opinion, be a mistake to get rid of tax credits across the board without discriminating between uses that benefit the common good and uses that do not. But sane public policy is not something this state has to date shown itself able to provide.
What a pity — a pity for students enrolled in some districts within the public school system, a system which is disastrously underfunded throughout, and in some districts not transparent and in some districts allowed to remain sadly low functioning, with no support for or enforcement of operational functionality coming from the state level. And what a pity for students enrolled in the irresponsible institutions within the private / charter system, a system which is currently unregulated and insufficiently overseen. I thank God that I can afford to utilize the Catholic system, which is in my experience high functioning and responsible, without relying on tax credits, and I fully support other families in Arizona being able to enjoy the same benefit by utilizing financial aid programs funded by tax credits.
I also don’t think the law was based on income. It was made available to all which is by far the simplest and fairest. You don’t pull up to the gas pump and tell them how much you make so they can surcharge you. That sounds like a liberal government idea. They believe in punishing success, so that others just don’t have to try as hard.
Let me try to explain it another way infinitebliss. The State gets rid of that student for $1,000 tax credit.
If it hadn’t happened the State needs to spend $7500+ or – depending on the school district costs. So every tax credit could be saving us tax payers $6500 per child. If you do the math, the more it’s used, the more we save.
It also reduces classroom size which benefits the children that stay. Let’s also say it reduces workload on teachers giving them more time to focus on teaching so public school test results should skyrocket.
I’m not sure how long we have to wait for that, but it also gets all the religious kooks out of the public schools. (No need to mention creation so they can focus on the big bang theory.)
All of you who defend what is happening seem to find it convenient to ignore the fact that this is unconstitutional. I don’t care how much you want it. I don’t care that the legislature passed it. David S.’ article teaches the truth about what is going on in Arizona, and you defend it and ask him what the purpose of the article is???? Or that it is okay because the money is just shifted???? Shifted with no oversight and for profit. I question your values, seriously. Read the first sentence I wrote.
It is like taking the Native Americans’ land. No matter what you say, it is stealing and is illegal according to the courts. This is wrong no matter how much you pretend it isn’t. i have sent it around and a huge percentage of people did not know this is happening. Keep it up David S. If some of the posters here really want this, they need to go through the process of getting an amendment stating it is the law of Arizona. Currently it is not. This is not the wild wild west which decides to ignore laws and just shoot people.
Apparently it is Constitutional. Per the LA Times:
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this approach an unconstitutional subsidy for teaching religion, but in Monday’s decision, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy threw out the entire lawsuit, holding that the objecting taxpayers had no standing to sue.
“When Arizona taxpayers choose to contribute [to a school tuition group], they spend their own money,” he said, not the state’s money. Therefore, others have no right to object, he said. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. agreed in the case of Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization vs. Winn.
We accepted the SC decision on Obamcare like law abiding citizens.
I’m afraid if you keep pushing this they will approve full blown vouchers like DC has. And now the President has put a stop to that.
But look at their facts:
Despite giving lip service to education reform, the Obama administration has decided to put an end to the very successful D.C. school voucher program. This despite a United States Department of Education report that found students in the nation’s capital that were provided with vouchers allowing them to attend private school through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program had made statistically significant gains in reading achievement.
———————————————————————-
Once again who speaks for the children? Certainly not the President.
Dan Hyde – thank you for illustrating one of the problems that led to the founding of the Catholic educational system in this country. There is a nasty vein of prejudice running through this country’s history, and parents generally don’t want their children educated in contexts where they may encounter teachers who are ignorant of what various churches believe and may make remarks that denigrate the students’ faith traditions. (Cf. your remarks on “religious kooks”…creationism…the Big Bang Theory.) If you’d like to become better informed about the Catholic Church’s position on matters like the relation between the creation account in Genesis and Darwin’s theory of evolution, you might try reading the Jesuit scientist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin. Other private religiously affiliated schools may be teaching pseudo-science, but you will not find it in the Catholic schools. Salpointe has excellent AP science offerings (with curricula set by the College Board), it is collaborating with scientists at the U of A to create new STEM curricula, and its science facilities are excellent. They are one of the selling points of the school.
Also, please note that the tax credit system does not work the way you believe it does. Families are not allowed to contribute tax credits in support of their own children’s enrollment in private schools. Some find a way of doing so by exchanging credits with friends – “I’ll designate your child and you designate mine.” This is not the purpose tax credits are supposed to serve — they are supposed to fund need-based financial aid programs — but some STO’s facilitate the abuse of tax credits.
Schools with large pools of tax credit money are not drawing just from their parent communities; they are drawing from their alumni communities, from relatives, friends, and neighbors of the students enrolled in their schools, and (through corporate tax credits) from the business community as well. Thus, it is theoretically possible that tax credits may cost the general fund more than they save in terms of reduced enrollment in the public schools, though I doubt that this is in fact the case.
The proper purpose of tax credits is to fund need-based financial aid programs, not for wealthy families to get discounts on their tuition bills. I and many other private school parents I know support both increased funding to public schools and increased oversight of the use of tax credits, to ensure that the schools utilizing them are academically sound and that the credits are being used to provide aid to meet demonstrated financial need.
The continued assault on tax credits by people like David Safier is very poor political strategy in a context where families are desperate to find good educational options for their children. Safier and his allies should be uniting the base that believes education is important and worth funding behind increasing funding to public schools, not dividing it by attacking legislation that supports need-based financial aid in worthy private schools providing excellent education in Arizona, a state where every sound educational institution is desperately needed and should not be undermined.
My apologies if I implied that you could give to yourself. I didn’t think that was the case. But shouldn’t it be? Who cares more about their child’s education than their parent. Why not give them the same?
I think the original legislation said that you could not help your own dependent and that would take a tax liability of at least $1,000 to use a tax credit of same. I thought that caveat “no dependent” was added so all income levels could participate if they could find outside help.
David W. you are wrong. I looked online and there are many lawsuits about this in the works. The one you cite does not address what AZ. is doing, in David’s article. Contributing to a private school is lawful . Allowing citizen to take tax credits for those contributions is another. There are many pieces to this and it is not over.
David W. what you cite is 2011. Look under what you google and put 2015. Plus, our state constitution says it is illegal.
I am going by what David Safier says in his article:
“The courts say both programs are OK constitutionally,”
What I learn from Dave Safier articles. Private schools are better than public schools. Avoid people who defend Arizona public schools in real life and online.
I came here just over a year ago with an open mind. Let’s just say I come here less and less.
Practical ideas – I am thankful for the information . Does someone know where my business could get access to a sample a form copy to type on ?