LETTERS: SENATE BILL WOULD GIVE TAX CREDITS FOR TUITION PAID TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS

To the editor:

Recently passed out of the Missouri Senate Ways and Means Committee was Senate Bill 333. If passed by both chambers of the General Assembly and signed into law, this measure would permit tuition paid for private high school education to be exempt from state income taxes. This exemption is limited to $2,000 per student and is available to all, whether or not one itemizes on tax returns. This amounts to a 6 percent reimbursement, up to $120, for saving taxpayers the $4,200 it would cost the state to educate a high school student. Statewide, if 238 students were able to attend private school due to this credit, the taxpayers would save $1 million at a maximum cost of $28,560.

Those in the school choice movement are frustrated that more taxpayers don't see the benefit that tax incentives play in attracting private capital into education. While SB 333 and its House companion, House Bill 344, fall short in many ways, they do establish the fact that private education saves taxpayers money. As a first step they merit support just because they begin to address the fairness-in-funding issue.

As modest and limited as SB 333 is, it probably won't see debate on the floor. Partly because the media are so focused on Congress and not on Jefferson City, many aren't aware of the battle. The highly organized efforts of the teachers union will kill this bill before it has been openly debated. If it were to reach the floor, surely an amendment to cover grades one through eight would be offered. How would public education survives if people had a viable option to the one elementary school they must choose?

KEN SCHAEFER

Cape Girardeau