Arizona Representative Looks To Roll Back Tax Credits For Private School Tuition

By Stina Sieg
Published: Monday, January 18, 2016 - 6:03pm
Audio icon Download mp3 (893.67 KB)

An ongoing effort by some Republican lawmakers to look at tax credits benefiting private school students is getting new life.

The idea is to roll back an annual 20 percent boost in the amount of corporate tax credits available for contributions to private school tuition organizations, known as STOs.

Republican Rep. Doug Coleman of Apache Junction, who’s sponsoring the house bill, said it would restart the conversation that sidetracked a similar effort last year. He said these credits threaten traditional and charter school funding. Opponents, however, say these credits actually save the state money because they're much lower than what the state pays public schools.

The bill would cut the annual increase from 20 percent to 2 percent, or the amount of inflation.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)