President Rick O’Hara, Dean of Students Brian Powell, and seniors from Mr. Powell’s AP Government and Politics class (pictured l to r: Caitlin Campbell, Kelly Stifler, Chris Collins, Amanda Reid, Will Du, and Karly Horn) put principle into practice on Tuesday night at St. Joan of Arc’s Legislative Night. John Carroll, along with many other local non-public schools, lobbied the Harford County delegation to support the Maryland Education Credit and to thank the politicians for their support of the Textbook and Technology Program and for their support of the Non-Public Aging Schools Program.
The Maryland Education Credit provides companies and individual businesses a 60% tax credit on donations to nonprofit Student Assistance Organizations. Those organizations in turn provide financial assistance for student expenses such as tuition, supplies, tutoring, transportation and special needs services. A business entity who donates may receive a credit of up to $200,000.
This bill will allow up to $15 million a year toward business tax credits. Sixty percent of tax credits will be available for assistance to Catholic and other nonpublic school students and the remaining 40% will be available for students attending public schools. Businesses may apply for the tax credits on a first-come, first-served basis, until the $15 million cap is reached.
The Education Credit will help lower and middle income families afford tuition and other educational expenses for their children, thus giving them the opportunity to attend the schools which best suit their needs. Furthermore, the influx of business investment will lower costs across the board, for schools and children alike. In short, more money means lower costs for parents. That leads to higher enrollments, improving the financial viability of our nonpublic schools and increasing the overall quality of our children’s education. On top of that, businesses benefit by receiving tax credit incentives which, in turn, stimulate the economy. More information can be found at www.educationmaryland.org.