The potential effect of Kansas' participation in a federal school voucher program

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Kansas Reflector Podcast 30 min 1 speaker 7 chapters transcribed 2 days ago

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What is the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Program and how does Kansas plan to join it?

Anna Kaminsky 0:01

This is the Kansas Reflector Podcast. My name is Anna Kaminsky and thank you for tuning in. Kansas will join more than two dozen other states to participate in the Trump administration's school voucher program. It's called the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Program. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly vetoed the state legislation that allows Kansas to participate, saying it needed further vetting on the federal level. If it is another attempt at vouchers, she said that redirects public dollars to private schools, Kansans don't want it. The Republican led legislature thought differently. They overrode the governor's veto by a slim margin, and here with me today to discuss what exactly this program does and how it could affect public schools is Leah Fleiter.

Anna Kaminsky 0:48

Leah is part of the lobbying team for the Kansas Association of School Boards advocating for the needs of public schools. Thank you for being here. Thanks for the invitation. So we're talking about what was known as Senate Bill three sixty one in the Kansas legislature, which allows Kansas to participate in the federal scholarship tax credit program. Under the program, which would begin in 2027, people can donate to scholarship granting organizations and then receive a dollar for dollar tax credit. That's limited at, I think, s around 1,700 for individuals and then a little more than 3,000 for married couples. And these scholarship granting organizations offer scholarships to students who meet certain income income criteria.

Anna Kaminsky 1:31

Um and we can talk a little bit about where, whether that's public or private schools or both. So Leah, can you first break down for us what exactly this legislation allows Kansas to do and then what the federal scholarship tax credit program is in in layman's terms?

Leah Fleiter 1:49

Well, Anna, um the Federal Tax Credit Uh Scholarship Voucher Program um actually operates quite similarly to the existing Kansas State Tuition Tax Credit Scholarship Voucher Program, wherein, as you stated, a donor uh donates to a scholarship granting organization, and then that organization in turn passes on a payment to a student or family. For expenses. The federal program allows people who have up to 300% of the local poverty rate to have to get access to one of these scholarships, one of these vouchers. And in in a lot of areas of the country, that is that could be people who are making, you know, a family who could have an income of 300%. Would now be eligible to take advantage of this voucher to help pay their private school expenses.

Leah Fleiter 2:48

So that's um that's obviously something that takes funding away from public schools. I think it's important for people to remember that, you know, generally speaking, schools, public schools, and other public services for that matter are generally funded in cases. Kansas, you know, by a mix of income tax, sales tax, property tax. Um that's you know sometimes called a three-legged stool. Well, if people are receiving an income tax credit. for a donation to this scholarship granting organization. That's revenue that should be going to the State General Fund or to the federal government. But now it is not because it's it's being granted as a tax credit to that donor. Now in Kansas you can get up to uh you can get a 75% uh income tax credit on your donation up to $500,000 to a scholarship granting organization.

Leah Fleiter 3:46

This federal voucher program is structured right now at a much lower level, as you noted right Roughly $1,700 per single or roughly $3,000 for say a married couple that might be donating to a scholarship granting organization. But what we expect and what we've seen with similar programs around the country at the state level is that that cap or that um income tax deduction is going to grow um over the years. And so while the impact right now on the federal uh funding stream is likely to be uh fairly small on an individual or, you know, married filing jointly, whatever level. Nationwide it's it's still a hit to the federal funding stream and of course that affects schools in Kansas as well because people are getting that income tax