Tax Bill Could Result in 5800 New Homeschoolers

House Bill 335 provides tax credit to new homeschoolers (only)

The N.C. General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division, which studies potential costs and savings of specific bills, has released a ten page report on the possible effects of H335, the "Tax Fairness in Education Act", which would provide a refundable tax credit of $2500 a year to qualifying private- and homeschool families. By their estimate, the credit could encourage nearly 6000 students to leave public schools in favor of homeschooling.

However, those who are already taught at home are ineligible.

The measure is being promoted as a cost savings to state and local governments, which could avoid as much as $26 million a year in education expenditures if that many students leave public schools. To realize the savings, the tax credit would only be offered to students who were actually enrolled in public school for two semesters first. This means that students who are already homeschooled could not receive the credit, and neither could those who are homeschooled from the beginning or taken out of private schools.

The Fiscal Research Division does not believe many parents will "game the system" by sending their children to public school just to qualify for the tax credit.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake), who distributed copies of the proposal at NCHE's Capital Fest this week.

(NCHSN Exclusive)