On Tuesday, the South Dakota House of Representatives passed the state’s first education choice program, the Partners in Education Tax Credit Program (SB159). The program will allow $2 million in tax credits to fund scholarships for low-income students whose families earn less than 150 percent of the free and reduced-price lunch income requirements. The bill awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
The following statements from education experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000.
“South Dakota has chosen to be a leader rather than a follower, adopting a relatively tiny program compared to the big-thinking opportunities available in competing states. But South Dakota children and taxpayers still have many reasons to look forward to the effects of this new school choice opportunity. Experience in other states overwhelmingly shows that private school choice increases respect for civic virtues such as free speech, saves money, and increases academic performance. Given America’s many decades of moribund education results – and skyrocketing costs of government expenditures set to choke K-12 – school choice is a rare, win-win way forward in an era of hard choices.”
Joy Pullmann
Research Fellow, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“South Dakota takes a small step toward providing quality education for students most in need. Scholarship tax credits allow parents to enroll their child in a school that will meet their educational needs. This program should be expanded rapidly to all children in South Dakota.”
Lennie Jarratt
Project Manager, Education Transformation
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“South Dakota helped low-income children yesterday by passing a school choice scholarship program, allowing disadvantaged kids access to better schools.”
Bruno Behrend
Senior Fellow, Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“While a universal education savings account bill would have been ideal, I won’t fault South Dakota legislators for taking a gradualist approach here. Providing families a chance to get their children away from the public school system, even if it is just a handful of them, is a step in the right direction. I have no doubt that the Partners in Education Tax Credit, if signed into law, will show South Dakotans its merits. From there, hopefully, state legislators will move to make school choice a reality for all South Dakota families.”
Tim Benson
Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 32-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
Lennie Jarratt is the former director of the Center for Education Opportunities at The Heartland Institute
Bruno Behrend, J.D., is a senior fellow for education policy at The Heartland Institute.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
