Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Alabama Supreme Court Upholds Tax Credit Law

Most people are hearing about the Alabama Supreme Court for a different reason this week, but the court also upheld the constitutionality of the state's tax credit law for school scholarships yesterday. The state supreme court rejected a challenges to the bill's constitutionality on the grounds that the law diverted  public funds for private education, put more than one subject in a bill, and cost $40 million in annual tax credits. A state judge struck down the Alabama Accountability Act as unconstitutional last spring. The law, called the Alabama Accountability Act, gives tax credits for parents who move their children from failing public schools to private schools. The law's reality as we posted here, is that tax credits do not benefit students in "failing" schools when they have no access to alternative non-failing public schools or private schools in their area. Thus, according to the Alabama Revenue Department, fewer than 100 students in failing schools statewide used the credits to transfer to private schools, despite there being 78 schools on the failing schools list. Read the court's recent opinion here

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2015/03/alabama-supreme-court-upholds-tax-credit-law.html

Cases, State law developments | Permalink

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