Republican Legislators Pass Tax-Credit Scholarship Bills in Michigan
The Republican-controlled Michigan House and Senate each passed versions of tax-credit scholarship legislation that Democrats blasted as an attempt to implement an unconstitutional voucher program, Michigan Live reported.
Senate Bill 687 would create Michigan Opportunity Scholarship Accounts, providing vouchers funded by donations by taxpayers to families making up to 200 percent of the free-and-reduced-price lunch program threshold, according to Michigan Live. Senate Bill 688, passed in conjunction with 687, would provide tax credits for donations to Michigan Opportunity Scholarship Accounts and similar programs. House Bill 5405 would create Student Opportunity Scholarships and provide similar tax credits for any donation to them.
Senator Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) cited a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis that estimated the five-year cost of the proposals to the state’s general fund would be as high as $1 billion.
Senate Bills 687 and 688 were approved by a 20-16 vote and House Bill 5405 by a 55-48 vote. If the bills pass in the opposite chamber, they will arrive on Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk where they are expected to be vetoed.
According to The Detroit News, there is no reason to believe Governor Whitmer will authorize the legislation: “Whitmer's office called the legislation a ‘non-starter’ that violates Michigan's constitutional protections for public school funds.”
In elaborating, Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said: "This legislation undermines that constitutional guarantee, permitting the diversion of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars annually to private institutions. Michiganders are tired of the attempts to force a Betsy DeVos-style voucher program that drain resources from our public schools."
In affirmation of its longstanding Blaine Amendment, barring public money from funding private schools, Michigan’s Constitution was amended in 1970 to spell out that “no payment, credit, tax benefit exemption or deduction, tuition voucher, subsidy grant or loan of public money shall be provided directly or indirectly to support the attendance of any student at any nonpublic school.”
“Legal and petition initiative efforts seeking to undo the amendment in the decades since its passage have been unsuccessful,” reported The Detroit News, “even those that received millions of dollars in support from West Michigan's DeVos family.”
According to The Detroit News, Representative Bryan Posthumus (R-Cannon Township) “argued the legislation wouldn't violate the Blaine Amendment because the money would go to scholarship-granting organizations and not directly to private schools.”
Much as in states with similar programs, reported The Detroit News, “The funds could be used on tuition or fees for public or nonpublic education or online learning programs, tutoring, extracurricular programs, textbooks or instructional materials, computer hardware, uniforms, standardized test fees, summer school, after-school programs or child care, dual enrollment, transportation, sports fees or career or technical programs.”
In the case of public school students, such funding would be limited to $500 or, in the case of public school students with disabilities, to $1,100.
“For nonpublic school students,” The Detroit News reported, “the funding would be capped at 90% of the minimum foundation allowance spent on public school students, minus three-eights of the percentage that the household income exceeds free or reduced lunch eligibility criteria. For a nonpublic school student with a disability, scholarship amounts would be capped at 90% of the minimum foundation allowance without consideration of household income.”
- A. Thomas