Legislation making its way through the South Dakota Senate would expand eligibility for the Partners in Education Tax Credit Program (PETCP), a tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students, by allowing South Dakota children who were not enrolled in the state’s public school system to also make use of the program.
Currently, low-income families making use of private schools in South Dakota are not eligible for the program. If passed, all South Dakota families with household incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty level would be eligible. PETCP currently has about 775 participating students in 45 different schools across the state.
Copious empirical research on school choice programs such as PETCP finds they offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances, and that these programs improve academic performance and attainment and deliver a quality education at lower cost than traditional public schools. Additionally, these programs benefit public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decreasing segregation, and improving civic values and practices.
Research also shows students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats. There is also a strong causal link suggesting private school choice programs improve the mental health of participating students.
It is probably for these reasons, and also because teacher unions have repeatedly played politics with school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic in direct conflict with students’ best interests, that ESAs are more popular with parents than ever before. Polling done by EdChoice released in December 2020 found 74 percent support for tax-credit scholarship programs among the general public and 78 percent among current school parents. These findings are mirrored in the American Federation for Children’s seventh-annual National School Choice Poll, released in January 2021, which saw 67 percent support for tax-credit scholarship programs.
The school a child attends should not be determined solely by his or her ZIP code. However, this is currently the case for most children in South Dakota. The goal of public education in the Mount Rushmore State today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school. There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now. Legislators should recognize that and allow families as many options as possible to get their children the education they need and deserve.
For more information about education savings accounts and education choice, visit us here.
