Reducing Funding for Public Schools

The House Taxation Committee today heard one of the “Terrible Ten” unconstitutional bills. HB 397, a bill from Rep. James Knox, seeks to divert funds from our public school system, into private and home schools.

The bill would give tax credits to parents who seek to put their children in private schools or home schools. These tax credits would come out of Montana’s current budget for public schools.

Also, this bill provides no clarification requiring that the private/home schools be accredited. This mean, parents who send their children to unaccredited schools that have to learning requirements could still receive tax credits. The bill also allows parents to receive tax incentives to send their children to private religious schools.

The implications of this bill would be far reaching. This bill would allow public money be diverted into private, sometimes unaccredited and sometimes religious institutions. Also, because our state constitution requires that public schools be adequately funded, the bill would raise the tax burden on local communities to make up for the tax money given to these private institutions.

The committee will take executive action on this bill in the coming days.