(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have required the state to be part of the Federal Tax Credit Scholarship.
Evers called the program a nationwide expansion of private voucher schools while proponents of the legislation say that it simply allows every taxpayer to donate up to $1,700 to help fund education.
“The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ created the first major federal program to effectively redirect public funds to private school tuition through tax incentives,” Evers wrote in his veto. “It is the first-ever federal effort to fund private school scholarships through vouchers the federal government will pay individuals in exchange for donating to organizations that award scholarships to attend private schools.”
Evers said that the tax credit is a redirect of tax money that should be received by the government to pay for programs and instead it is being redirected to private schools. The tax credits are federal tax credits while much of school funding comes from the state and local property taxes.
“Put another way, the federal government is now going to use public funds that should be used for public schools to essentially reimburse donors for helping fund private schools instead,” Evers wrote. “No joke.”
The Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, however, argued that public schools stand to benefit also.
“The FTCS simply allows taxpayers to make a charitable contribution to the educational entity of their choice,” the group said in a statement. “As public schools have far more students than private schools, public schools stand to gain so much more funding through the FTCS. We see the value of a healthy educational ecosystem in Wisconsin, and the FTCS will help to ensure every student in Wisconsin has the ability and the resources to succeed.”