An education group is asking the state Department of Revenue to rule that private school students can no longer qualify for tax credit scholarships by enrolling in, but never attending, a public school.
The Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation said the practice of allowing students to simply enroll in a public school skirts the original intent of the tax credit scholarship law, which was to provide low-income school children an opportunity to transfer out of troubled public schools.
"The practice is costing Georgia taxpayers millions of dollars, evades the clear meaning of the law, wastes public school districts’ time and resources, and sets a dangerous, very costly precedent," said Steve Suitts, vice president of the foundation, a non-profit that advocates for low-income and minority students.
The foundation announced in early June the results of its two-year investigation into Georgia's tax credit scholarship program, which since 2008 has allowed individuals and corporations to claim, within limits, a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for collectively donating up to $50 million a year. That money is then turned over to private student scholarship organizations to be dispersed for private school tuition.
The investigation's conclusion was that the program was a "failed experiment" that needed to be overhauled or ended, the foundation said.
"Almost two months after the release of our report exposing this practice, nothing has changed," the foundation leaders said in a press release.
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, one of the chief supporters of the scholarship program, has called the Southern Education Foundation "extremists" who make accusations without anything to back up their claims.
"Not one of these rabid individual extremists from the so-called education association can back up any of their assertions with facts," he said.
A petition, filed late Thursday by the foundation, requests that Revenue Commissioner Doug MacGinnitie use his rule-making authority to declare that only students who have actually attended public school can qualify for the scholarship.
"No other state with a tax credit scholarship permits SSOs (student scholarship organizations), private schools and parents to engage in such evasions of the law," the petition states.
MacGinnitie could not be reached for comment Thursday and was not expected back at work until Monday. But spokesman Reg Lansberry confirmed the petition had been received.
"I have no doubt that he will afford the request by the SEF for a full review upon his return," Lansberry said in an email.
Foundation leaders say that, because of the tax credit law, more than $72 million was diverted from the state treasury between 2008 and 2010.
The petition warns that if the state allows "enroll" only to mean "register," every state scholarship program, including the popular lottery-funded HOPE scholarship, could become a prime target for misuse and deception because Georgia law on state-supported scholarships uses the term "enroll" at times in defining eligibility.
The petition cites reports in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dating back to 2009, in which public school officials said they had students who enrolled, but never showed up for the start of the school years. Some parents, the officials said, acknowledged that their goal was to meet the "enroll" requirement so their children could receive a private school scholarship.
The AJC earlier this year reported that few student scholarship organizations were willing to provide information about their scholarship recipients, including the recipients' family income.
The newspaper reported that the state Department of Education doesn't independently monitor the program and that some SSOs haven't provided audits to the DOR to show that the money is being spent properly. In addition, the paper pointed out that a new law has conflicted provisions, one which requires the release of more information about the program and one that has been interpreted as mandating no or
little disclosure.
The petition states that the DOR has 30 days to respond to the foundation's request.
In an e-mail Friday morning, Ehrhart said the foundation should go through the legislature if it wants to change the law, not the DOR.
He said foundation leaders, in their petition, claim to know his mind and intent on the scholarship law.
"Perhaps we can get them a gig like on the old Johnny Carson show as the "Great Carnac," Ehrhart said. "Mind-readers extraordinaire."
Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this article.
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