• Increase scholarship assistance for lower and middle income families
• Promote affordable educational options to attract businesses and new residents
• Stabilize enrollments in nonpublic schools
• Help relieve overcrowding and other enrollment pressures on public schools
• Increase access to scholarships and professional development opportunities for nonpublic school teachers in order to meet "highly qualified" standards

• Promote innovative enrichment programs for public school students
• Target business support for programs that serve specific local needs
• Increase visibility of successful initiatives in local public schools to attract businesses and new residents
• Increase access to professional development opportunities for public school teachers in order to meet “highly qualified” standards

BUSINESS DONATIONS AND CREDITS
• Businesses may receive a tax credit against the state income tax of 75% of their total donation to an eligible organization.
• Businesses eligible for the credit include C corporations, S corporations, sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability corporations, and business trusts

EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP ORGANIZATIONS:
• Must be a 501(c)(3) organization that expends at least 85% of its annual receipts on scholarships
• Must provide scholarships to students attending at least four different schools
• Must provide scholarships on a priority basis to all student applicants who qualify for the federal Free and Reduced Price Meals program
• Must expend any remaining funds to provide scholarships on a sliding scale according to the financial need of other student applicants
• May provide up to 25% of their proceeds for scholarship grants to nonpublic- school teachers for the cost of graduate-level coursework or continuing professional development programs needed to meet or retain state certification or certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
• Must be a 501(c)(3) organization that expends at least 85% of its annual receipts on programs or services to public school students or teachers
• Must support enrichment programs for public-school students that reinforce the goals of the Bridge to Excellence Act
• May provide up to 25% of proceeds for professional development programs for public-school teachers needed to meet or retain state certification or certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

ADMINISTRATION
• Businesses submit an application for a state tax credit to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), indicating the amount of their intended contribution
• MSDE approves tax credit applications on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the statewide limitations
• Educational Scholarship Organizations and Innovative Educational Organizations confirm receipt of each business contribution with MSDE
• MSDE provides businesses certification of their contributions for the purposes of filing for the credit on the business’ state income tax return

APPROVAL OF ORGANIZATIONS
• Educational Scholarship Organizations and Innovative Educational Organizations submit an application to MSDE verifying that they meet the statutory requirements of an approved organization
• MSDE must approve organizations’ applications within 60 days
• MSDE publishes a list of all approved organizations

SB 373 leaves funding for the program to the discretion of the governor's budget, while the original proposal capped funding at $5 million.

No. BOAST is a 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 benefits business donors who contribute to organizations that provide scholarships or innovative programs to public school students.

No. In fact, SB 373/HB 812 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 136,000 Maryland children attend nonpublic schools. That is roughly the same number as are enrolled in the Montgomery County public school system, the largest in the state. Based on the state’s average per-pupil cost of education of $10,800 in the 2005-2006 school year, nonpublic students save taxpayers about $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.

Many nonpublic schools already offer a variety of services to students with special needs and all want to do more. Since students lose their right to special education funding when they leave the public school system, it is difficult for nonpublic schools to provide special education services without passing the extra costs on to families. The BOAST program can be used to grant scholarships to students with special needs.

Public funds are consistently used to benefit private industry when those industries provide a public service. Maryland offers tax benefits to the film, biotech, farming and horseracing industries, among many others, because they offer a valuable contribution to the state. Nonpublic schools also have a public benefit – they educate students who would otherwise be in the public school system and save taxpayers about $1.5 billion annually.