AFC Applauds Trump’s Visit to Florida Choice School
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President Highlights Success of State’s Popular Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The American Federation for Children, the nation’s voice for educational choice, applauds President Donald Trump for visiting St. Andrew’s Catholic School in Orlando and highlighting the success of the popular Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.
Statement from John Kirtley, Vice Chairman of the American Federation for Children:
“Nearly 100,000 children across the state of Florida this year have been given more educational opportunities thanks to the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program and schools like St. Andrew’s. As Denisha Merriweather showed the entire country this past Tuesday evening at President Trump’s joint address to Congress, a scholarship can end the cycle of poverty and provide a whole new direction in one’s life. She embodies the true power of choice in education, and thousands more can be served by a program like Florida’s across the entire country.”
St. Andrew’s is one of the more than 1,700 schools participating in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, providing seats for a high-quality education to many students in need. St. Andrew’s serves 295 students from low-income families receiving a scholarship provided by non-profit organizations. Companies that donate to scholarship granting non-profits, such as Step Up for Students, receive a dollar-for-dollar state income tax credit.
For more information about tax credits that incentivize charitable giving to non-profit organizations who give out scholarships to needy kids, see more below.
Facts on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC)
A dollar-for-dollar tax credit is given to companies that contribute to qualified non-profit organizations that give scholarships to economically disadvantaged K-12 students. More than 98,000 students – 100% of whom come from low-income families – receive a scholarship through the FTC statewide, and their household incomes average $24,000 per year. 60 percent of the students participating are black or Hispanic. The program enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Florida legislature. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship was ranked #1 in the American Federation for Children’s inaugural 2016/2017 Report Card: http://bit.ly/2bnfCti.
AFC Support for a Federal Tax Credit Scholarship
The American Federation for Children (AFC) urges the Trump Administration and Congress to act with urgency to facilitate educational opportunity for millions of K-12 students who are trapped in schools that are not meeting their needs. With 68 percent nationwide supporting school choice, AFC enthusiastically supports the most viable and powerful proposal that could immediately help needy children in all 50 states: a federal tax credit to inspire charitable giving to local non-profits who would provide scholarships for eligible children to attend private schools. Publicly-supported tax credit scholarship programs are currently in place in 17 states and educate over 250,000 children, mostly from low-income families.
Empirical Research Facts on School Choice
There have been 15 gold standard empirical studies of private school choice measuring test score outcomes: 10 show improvement, 3 are neutral, and 2 are negative—only based upon on results in early years of those latter two studies.
Read the research summary here: http://bit.ly/2lDX23K.