Andy Rosen at marylandreporter.com reported over the weekend that a House Ways and Means subcommittee dealing with a bill that would create a tax credit program for private school scholarships and for public school enrichment programs was considering a set of amendments that, among other things, effectively exclude all Maryland Jewish schools from the program.
The bill, long sought by private school advocates, got extra attention this year because of the Archdiocese of Baltimore's plan to close 13 schools amid declining enrollment and tightening finances. The proposed amendments to the legislation are well meaning in as much as they seem designed to target that situation by limiting the tax credits to schools that have been in one location for 25 years or more and face declining enrollment. But the amendment robs the bill of its non-sectarian nature. Furthermore, Jewish (and for that matter, non-religious schools) are facing the same problems that Catholic schools are, if on a smaller scale.
To its credit, the Maryland Catholic Conference says it wouldn't support the House version if those amendments are added.
But the point may be moot anyway. Another change the House was considering calls for $10 million to be set aside to fund the tax credits this year. The original legislation, and the version passed by the Senate, doesn't fund the program this year and in the future doesn't specify a dollar amount for the credits, leaving that up to the governor as he crafts the budget. That was a key provision in a year when the state is looking to cut spending, not add to it.
In all, the proposed changes look less like a good faith effort to produce workable legislation and more like an attempt to vote in favor of something without the risk that it will actually become law. Anything can happen between now and adjournment at midnight, but unless the full Ways and Means Committee adopts something close to the Senate's version of the bill when it meets to discuss the matter today, it looks like this won't be BOAST's year.
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error at marylandreporter.com, an earlier version of this entry incorrectly stated the status of the proposed amendments. As of this writing, they had not been voted on.