Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently spoke on a panel at the Houston Area Safety Council (HASC) about his proposed Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act. The legislation seeks to expand elementary, secondary and vocational opportunities for students by providing a federal tax credit to encourage individuals and businesses to donate to nonprofit scholarship funds.
"In my seven years serving in the Senate, my No. 1 priority is and has been jobs," Cruz said. "Texans want more jobs, higher wages and more opportunity."
The legislation, Cruz said, would constitute $10 billion per year, or $100 billion over 10 years, in federal tax credits focused on education. The program has two portions: The first portion ($5 billion per year) allows states to opt in. If a state does opt in, individuals and companies who give contributions to scholarship organizations for K-12 education would receive a dollar- for-dollar federal tax credit, contributing an extra $5 billion per year in funding for scholarships. Because "every state has different needs," as Cruz pointed out, the program would be run at a state level, not out of Washington.
Cruz believes the scholarship funds would enhance available options and competition in K-12 education, thereby improving the quality of public schools.
The second portion of the program (another $5 billion per year) would focus on workforce development. Cruz stressed the importance of this initiative by addressing the growing need for skilled workers, both in Texas and throughout the country.
"We have far too many adults that don't have the skills they need for an economy where there's an enormous need for welders, crane operators, pipefitters and people who work in refineries and in the oil field," he said. "They've got to get the skills to do it, or they're not going to get those jobs."
This portion of the program would behave exactly like the K-12 portion, but in relation to vocational training. Contributors to scholarship organizations for vocational training would also receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, providing much-needed resources to vocational schools and, in turn, stimulating the growth of the country's skilled labor workforce.
States would be able to opt in to the K-12 program, the vocational training program or both. According to Cruz, the primary reason a state might choose not to opt in to the program would stem from the complicated politics surrounding the issue of school choice.
"If you look at the politics of school choice, you'll see enormous political battles fought across the country," he said. "I think we've seen, in the choice programs that have been implemented, that [choice and competition] end up improving the public school system. The competition ends up ratcheting up results for everybody."
To make the legislation more appealing to Congressional Democrats, Cruz designed the bill to ensure none of the $10 billion per year needed to fund the program would be taken from public schools -- a common concern voiced by those who oppose expanding school choice. Instead, the $10 billion per year would be "all-new money."
The state income tax credits would be given to those contributing to scholarship funds at any state-certified scholarship organization. Each state would be able to set up the funding structures however it deems fit, with the one exception being that states would not be able to discriminate against private or religious schools. So long as the ultimate choice of which school to attend rests with parents and students, states would be able to allocate the new funding directly to public schools.
For more information, visit www.cruz.senate.gov or call (202) 224-5922.