As Sam Sees It
The Winslow School District Governing Board and administration is, or soon will be, considering establishing a program to receive and use tax credit donations for extra curricula activities. The program which was established by the state legislature in 1998 allows individuals or couples to donate up to $200 to public schools and up to $500 to private schools and receive tax credit for their donations.
Many affluent and aggressive school districts have taken advantage of the program to fund various extra curricula programs and activities at no real cost to the donors. A donor will be able to claim credit, dollar for dollar up to the maximum of $200, for each donation to the district. Some very worthy projects have been funded at less than affluent districts such as the impoverished Dysart District. Dysart had been forced to drop its sports program due to inadequate funding until an aggressive campaign to garner tax credit donations was undertaken.
Such a program could be of great value to the Winslow Public Schools. It is well within the range of possibility that enough funds could be raised to do much more than just purchase the uniforms and buy meals on out of town trips that is often mentioned. One school is said to be planning to purchase an activities bus from such donations. One suggestion has been to purchase computers for an after school computer club and use the equipment for regular classes during the school day. For certain, projects that are funded out of donations will not have to be funded from the general fund to the extent that they are today.
My reservation about such a tax credit program is that it will be used mostly by the most affluent and knowledgeable while the poorer districts do not take advantage of the opportunities such programs afford. However, as long as the state sanctions such programs, districts such as Winslow Unified should make full use of them.
It is likely that mostly supporters of private and parochial schools such as Brophy Prep, St. Mary's, Tucson Salpointe and Seton Catholic pushed this program. One thing all of these schools have in common is uncommon athletic success. Could it be that the scholarships paid for by the tax credit program go mostly to athletes? Whether that is true or not, most public schools in Arizona could use monies raised by this program and should move to do so.
We know that tax credit programs are subject to abuse. If the "alternative fuels vehicle" fiasco taught us nothing else, it should have taught that lesson. My preference would be for the legislature to abolish all tax credit programs and never consider another. If using the school tax credit program to the maximum could cause that to happen it would be the best possible result. Whether the program is used for years and successfully funds programs at our schools or the system becomes overloaded and causes such programs to be abandoned makes no difference. We, the ordinary taxpayers, win either way.
I urge the Winslow School Board to adopt such a program and every citizen to participate. You would not be "giving" money. You would be "loaning" it until the day you get your state tax return.
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