Analysis of Virginia Tuition Tax Credit Proposal
reportThe Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has analyzed the proposed “Virginia Children’s Educational Opportunity Act 2000” (H.B. 68 and S.B. 336), to measure the effects of the bill’s proposed tuition subsidies on Virginia families with children by income group.
H.B. 68 and S.B. 336 would provide Virginia parents with children in kindergarten though high school with state subsidies for tuition payments (generally to private schools). The subsidies would nominally be as much as $2,500 per child by the time the bill is fully phased in (in 2005). The subsidies would be structured as credits against Virginia income taxes otherwise due.1
In summary, ITEP’s analysis finds that the proposed subsidies for Virginia K-12 tuition, when fully effective, would cost a minimum of $144 million annually, in 1999 dollars— ignoring any possible increases in private school enrollment, if any, that the subsidies might cause. These subsidies would go primarily to the best-off Virginia families with children.