All Your Money Is Belong to Us (not)

The Ed Sector’s Sara Mead made a passing comment recently that, “yes, vouchers or tax expenditures in the form of tax credits are public funding.” The problem with this statement is not just that it’s wrong in general, or even that it has repeatedly been found to be wrong with specific regard to education tax credit programs, but that its wrongness has been a matter of court record for long enough that anyone working in education policy can reasonably be expected to be aware of it.

The most notable relevant case is Kotterman v. Killian, in which opponents of Arizona’s education tax credit program challenged it on the grounds that public money was being used to pay for religious instruction. Writing for the majority, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas A. Zlaket observed that

According to Black’s Law Dictionary, “public money” is “[r]evenue received from federal, state, and local governments from taxes, fees, fines, etc.” …. As respondents note, however, no money ever enters the state’s control as a result of this tax credit. Nothing is deposited in the state treasury or other accounts under the management or possession of governmental agencies or public officials. Thus, under any common understanding of the words, we are not here dealing with “public money.”

There’s much more. The AZ Supreme Court utterly gutted the plaintiff’s arguments on this matter. In their decision, the justices also cited numerous precedents from other states reaching the same conclusion, and subsequent rulings from Illinois regarding that state’s education tax credit program have further cemented this view.

When I see obviously counterfactual, readily falsified claims such as Mead’s, by people who should know better, I’m always deeply puzzled as to how and why they occur. Somebody throw me a bone here.