Another rant: On the Georgia Private School Scholarship Program

“The money follows the student.”
    That’s the hidden intent, yes -- but not the intent that is publicly presented.  And this is why the program has been kept so quiet.  The fact is: there is no state constitutional mechanism for “tax dollars to follow the student” -- or anything else, for that matter.  So, this tax-credit “scholarship” program is simply an end-around this fact.  
    The dollar-for-dollar tax credit is presented as a tax benefit to you because you’ve made a contribution to a non-profit organization (the Student Scholarship Organizations) so that they can dispense scholarships to “qualified” students.  Your tax dollars aren’t so much following your student: you’ve just made a nice gift, so here’s a tax credit.
    But then, interestingly, these contributors often turn around and apply for one of these scholarships for their children -- and this is how the public income tax-credited money happens to follow the child into the private school system.  As one SSO puts it, this tax credit program “allows tax payers to have some control over how their tax dollars are used.”  Oh, would that were the case with all of my tax dollars: I don’t like guns, so I should be able to see that none of my tax dollars goes to state hunting programs.  I don’t think the government should be in the business of health care, so I want to see that my tax dollars get diverted to support private health clinics.  I don’t like these state-run services for senior citizens, so I want to have my tax dollars diverted to private services for senior citizens.  Where would this “follow the tax-payer” mantra stop?  
    The qualifications for the scholarship  is not so much need based as it is based on the child being first enrolled in public school.  For the past three years, public schools across the state have spent many, many man hours enrolling thousands of students who never show up on the first day of school.  And then the schools spend hours and effort to un-enroll these students, and also reconfigure classes because of these students who never showed up.  So, I could make a $2,500 donation to one of these SSOs, enroll my child in public school, and request a scholarship (say, $2500) from the same SSO, and voila, I’ve just received $2500 essentially from myself, and I never had to pay income tax on it -- and there’s no oversight on this.  And if I own my own small business, I can have my corporation make a tax-credited gift as well.  Bonus!!
    That there is so little oversight of these SSOs and to how the “scholarships” are disbursed is particularly troubling.  These SSOs, mind you, only have to disburse 90% of the funds that they collect.  Currently there are 33 of these federal income tax exempt organizations set up to each take in part of the 50 million dollars that is diverted to them.  33 virtually unregulated, tax free organizations to “watch over” 50 million dollars that has been diverted from the income tax digest.  Why such a mad rush to start up an SSO, I wonder??  Well, lets say I set up an SSO and I take in 2 million in contributions.  I only have to disburse 1.8 million in scholarships. The other $200,000 dollars is for “operating expenses” of these non-profit agencies.  And they say Georgia’s teachers make too much money????  
    So, yes, the money follows the student.  But it’s a game of three-card Monte.