BOAST Facts
The 2010 BOAST bill, out of recognition for the state's budget situation, does not contain any funding. It is cost neutral and would leave funding to the governor's discretion.
No. BOAST is a business tax credit program. Vouchers give individual students public dollars to attend the school of their choice. The BOAST bill simply increases an existing tax incentive (a charitable deduction) to a tax credit to encourage businesses to donate to programs that benefit students in both nonpublic and public schools.
No. Tuition tax credits directly benefit families who pay tuition by giving them a personal tax credit for their tuition expenses. The BOAST tax credit is offered to business donors who contribute to organizations that provide scholarships or innovative programs to public school students, similar to business tax credits for the film industry.
No. In fact, BOAST requires that priority for nonpublic school scholarships be given to children who qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. The misconception that BOAST only benefits wealthy families may be based on confusing the BOAST tax credit with a tuition tax credit. Tuition tax credits might benefit families with higher incomes since they can afford to pay tuition in the first place. The BOAST tax credit benefits families who cannot afford tuition by increasing scholarship funds for needy students.
No. In fact, BOAST gives more money to public school students than they would otherwise have because businesses can receive the tax credits for donations to innovative enrichment programs. The funding for BOAST would come from the state’s tax revenues – not from dollars already dedicated to public schools. To oppose BOAST because the funding could theoretically be used for public schools would mean to oppose state expenditures for anything other than public education – including law enforcement, transportation and health care.
About 127,000 children attend Maryland's Catholic and other nonpublic schools. Based on the state’s average per-pupil cost of education of $12,508 in the 2007-2008 school year, nonpublic students save taxpayers more than $1.5 billion annually.
While nonpublic schools do not have to accept all students, the scholarships that would be made available through BOAST do not go directly to schools but would made available to all students, with priority given to those from low-income families.
Most nonpublic schools already voluntarily participate in standardized testing, on which their students consistently perform well. There is no evidence that students in nonpublic schools are less prepared than students in public school for college or the workplace. Moreover, nonpublic schools are held accountable to the parents who pay tuition to send their children to the school. Finally, a business would be unlikely to make a scholarship donation to a student to attend a school that was not performing well.