Boehner Praises President’s Plan to Expand Education Choice for Parents with Children in Failing Schools

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) today expressed strong support for the education tax credit proposed by President Bush as part of the Administration’s FY 2003 budget. The credit would provide up to $2,500 a year for parents with children in failing schools and would be refundable -- making it an especially powerful tool for low-income parents who lack the options more affluent parents have.

     “Regardless of income or other factors, parents with children in chronically-failing schools should able to choose the best school possible for their children,” Boehner said. “Low-income parents in disadvantaged communities with failing schools should have the same education choices that affluent parents have.”

     “Giving parents this choice will broaden the escape route for students trapped in failing schools. It will also energize the public education system and spur struggling schools to succeed,” Boehner noted. “For low-income parents, this could mean the difference between keeping a child trapped in a failing school that refuses to change, or sending a child to a better-achieving school that offers hope.”

     The President’s proposed education tax credit would build on last year’s bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1). It would make up to $2,500 available for parents with children in failing schools to use for tuition, books, computers, and other uses to enhance their children’s education.

     In 2001, Congress took significant bipartisan action to expand choices for low-income parents - creating expanded Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell accounts) that help parents pay for K-12 educational expenses and both private and public schools, and giving parents with children in chronically-failing public schools the right to choose a private tutor and a better-achieving public or charter school. All of the reforms were proposed by President Bush as key elements of the No Child Left Behind education plan.

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