More states are using tax breaks to incentivize donations to private school scholarship programs, finds a new Government Accountability Office report.
Tax-credit scholarships are the lesser-known cousins of school vouchers and are also a favored policy of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The GAO examined 22 tax-credit scholarship programs in 18 states. All told, these programs awarded more than $856 million during the 2016-17 school year, the most recent year for which data were available.
It found 17 programs have income limits for participating families, ranging from $32,000 to $136,500 per year for a four-person household. In six of the 17 programs, the income limits exceeded their state’s median income.
