Friday, May 06, 2011

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — School choice in Oklahoma took another step forward yesterday as the state Senate approved the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act on a 28-12 concurrence vote. Senate Bill 969 will provide tax credits to individuals and businesses that donate to nonprofits that distribute private-school scholarships to eligible families.

“This is more good news in a year of unprecedented, nationwide progress toward the goal of families’ freedom to choose educational options that are right for them,” Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the Foundation for Educational Choice, said. “We applaud the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Lee Denney and Sen. Dan Newberry, for their leadership, and we thank the Oklahoma School Choice Coalition for its steadfast commitment to improving education in the Sooner State.”

Children in families with incomes up to 300 percent of the income needed to qualify for the federal Free and Reduced-Price Lunch program will be eligible to receive scholarships. Also, scholarship-granting nonprofits must spend a portion of their expenditures for low-income students in an amount equal to or greater than the percentage of low-income students in the state.

Eligible students can receive scholarships worth up to $5,000 or 80 percent of the average per-pupil expenditures in the school districts where they reside. With a “cap” of tax credits allowed set at $1.75 million—and with the tax credit itself being worth 50 percent of the donation—the program will provide potentially $3.5 million toward scholarships. The program also provides a separate $1.5 million in tax credits for donations made to nonprofits that distribute “educational improvement grants” to public schools, which is similar to a 10-year-old program in Pennsylvania.

The legislation will now proceed to Gov. Mary Fallin.

About the Foundation for Educational Choice

The Foundation for Educational Choice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, solely dedicated to advancing Milton and Rose Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children. First established as the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in 1996, the foundation continues to promote school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America. The foundation is dedicated to research, education, and outreach on the vital issues and implications related to choice and competition in K-12 education.