As president of the State Senate, he has promoted a range of conservative policies, including a tuition tax credit system
that provides over $100 million per year to finance vouchers for private schools.
By contrast, many of the largest new direct voucher programs, where funds go straight from the government
to the school, require private schools to administer the same tests given to students in public schools.
Tax credits for vouchers also allow states to circumvent so-called Blaine amendments, legal prohibitions against the direct disbursement of public funds to parochial schools
that were added to many state constitutions in the 19th century during a wave of anti-Catholicism.
“It’s been better and more successful than even those of us who were enthusiastic from the get-go imagined.”
Some states, like Alabama and Indiana, limit tax credit vouchers to low-
and middle-income families, or to students who were previously enrolled in public school.
For some, spending $1,000 directly on a school voucher is government spending, while
forgoing $1,000 in revenue to finance a $1,000 nonprofit voucher is a tax cut.
