The Catholic Church is getting involved in a Missouri ballot
initiative that would create tax breaks for donating to nonprofit groups
that offer scholarships or financial aid for parochial and private
schools.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis contributed $300,000 to an entity
backing the initiative, while the Missouri Catholic Conference chipped
in another $11,000, according to campaign finance filings reviewed by
the Kansas City Star.
The church will also recruit volunteers to collect signatures to get the measure on the November 2014 ballot.
The initiative would amend Missouri’s constitution to allow $90
million in state tax credits to be claimed by organizations and
individuals who donate to educational organizations.
Half of the tax
credits would be reserved for donations to public school districts,
while 40 percent — about $36 million — would be reserved for donations
to private and parochial schools.
That’s where the church comes in: The Archdiocese runs 148 schools in
and around St. Louis, educating about 49,000 students from kindergarten
through 12th grade.
“We believe this would very much help to stabilize enrollment — and
hopefully to grow enrollment — within the Catholic and private schools,”
George Kerry, an adviser to Archbishop Robert Carlson, told the Star.
Supporters of the proposed tax breaks must collect 146,907 valid
signatures, or 8 percent of the total votes cast in the last
gubernatorial election from at least two-thirds of Missouri’s nine
Congressional districts, by May 4, 2014.
School choice bills have failed
several times in the state legislature in recent years.