Tuition Tax Credits and Equity

Proposals to advance parental choice via tax credits surfaced in the United States at state and federal levels in the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s a total of 13 state legislatures enacted tax credits to aid families with children attending private schools or colleges. However, most of these plans were overturned as state courts ruled that they provided public aid directly to religious schools. At the federal level, at least seven tuition tax credit proposals had passed the U.S. Senate by the late 1970s, yet none of the bills ever became law. In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration proposed various K–12 tax credit plans, all of which were defeated by the Democratic Congress. Most recently, since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind ...