O'Malley endorses tax credit for school donations

Read the full story in the Capital News Service. Gov. Martin O'Malley threw his support behind controversial legislation Wednesday that would offer tax incentives for donations to private school scholarship programs and other education-related nonprofits.

The Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers, or BOAST bill, would offer businesses an income tax credit for contributions to nonprofits that provide scholarships to private school students and grants to teachers in both public and private schools.

"The BOAST bill will increase scholarships for children in low and middle income families and stabilize enrollment in nonpublic schools," O'Malley wrote in a letter to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee."I believe the bill is crucial if we are to stem the tide of private school closures in the State."

O'Malley attended Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit school in Washington, and Catholic University of America.

The tax credit has been introduced in previous legislative sessions, but is yet to get the approval of both chambers of the General Assembly. The bill passed the Senate in 2008, but has not received a vote in the full House.

Delegate Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said this week that the measure could get a vote this session.
Opponents of the tax credit say that it would redirect money from public schools at a time when money is scarce across the state.

"It would be a liability against the state's revenue when we can barely fund education, public education," said Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George's. "To talk about re-directing more money to private schools I think is just untimely and I don't think it's an effort that the state should pursue."

Similar programs in other states have turned the nonprofits that collect the donations and then dispense the funds into "middlemen" with very little oversight, said Amy Maloney of the Maryland State Education Association.