NJ Lawmakers Introduce Private School Tuition Assistance Bill

By Matis Glenn

Parents of private school students in New Jersey will be eligible for a tax credit to assist in paying tuition under a bill introduced to the state legislature Monday.

The “New Jersey Student Support Act,” sponsored by 13 Democratic members of the State Assembly and Senate, would create a program wherein individuals and corporations can donate money to a Scholarship Granting Organization(SGO), which would distribute the money equally to private school children in the state. Parents who have a shared income of $200,000 and one child (more income will be permitted for more children) will be eligible for the program.

Funds donated would be able to be reclaimed through a tax credit. The maximum amounts donatable in the bill’s current form are $100,000 for individuals and $1 million for corporations, but cannot be more than half of either’s tax liability. The proposed budget for the program will be $250 million.

The program differs from states such as Arizona and Nebraska, which offer vouchers for private schools, or Florida, which offers direct payments into education accounts to be used at the parents’ discretion for any educational expenses, including home schooling.

Democrat-majority state legislatures appear to be more inclined to approve tax credits, such as Illinois, where critics argued that other programs can affect funding for public schools. The proposed New Jersey bill differs from Illinois in that funds are equally distributed to all schools and eligible students in the former, whereas in the latter, donors can decide which school they want to support.

New Jersey’s Division of Taxation, part of the Department of Treasury, would oversee the SGO.

The funds are able to be distributed to schools under the New Jersey bill; home-schooled children will not be eligible.

The 13 sponsors of the bill included Senator Vin Gopal, Assemblywoman Lisa Swain, Senator Paul Sarlo and Assemblyman Avi Schnall.

Agudath Israel hailed the bill’s introduction.

“Parents in New Jersey have waited long enough,” Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel of America’s national director of government affairs said in a statement. “We thank the bill sponsors and urge all legislators to support this common sense policy.”

“Agudath Israel recognizes the tireless efforts of New Jersey Assemblyman Avi Schnall who has invested countless hours in bringing this bill to its current form,” Rabbi Shlomo Schorr, director of legislative affairs for Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey Office said in a statement. “We look forward to working with parents, school leaders, policy makers and other education advocates, particularly TeachNJ and United Education of New Jersey (UENJ) in the coming months.”