Vienna superintendent explores federal tax credit program for public schools

FOX23 News at 9 p.m

VIENNA, Ill., (KBSI) — Vienna Superintendent Joshua Stafford is working with education partners to determine how a new federal scholarship tax credit could benefit public schools and students in Illinois.

Section 25F of the Internal Revenue Code establishes the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit. The program allows individual taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 annually for donations to eligible scholarship-granting organizations.

Those organizations could work with schools and families to cover qualifying educational expenses.

States must opt into the program before their students, families and schools can participate. As of August, 31 states had announced plans to participate, according to information released by Vienna High School. Other states are waiting for the Internal Revenue Service to issue final program rules before deciding.

Stafford said he wants “Illinois dollars to stay in Illinois and be invested in Illinois kids.”

While Illinois considers whether to participate, Stafford and other educators have begun the process of establishing Alliance SGO, a scholarship-granting organization intended to work with public schools and families.

Additional information about the organization is available at https://www.alliancesgo.org.