The Jordan school board is discussing whether it might avoid working with businesses that support tax credits to help fund private school tuition.
Jordan Board of Education President Ralph Haws suggests the board ask potential contractors their stand on tuition tax credits, then keep their answers in mind when seeking bids.
"They can't have it both ways and say, 'We love to do business with public education' . . . (when tax credits) erode the funding base for public education," Haws said in a study session this week. "I think it's politically sensitive . . . but we cannot ignore it."
Rep. John Swallow, R-Sandy and sponsor of a controversial tuition tax credits bill last legislative session, said such questioning would be "unfortunate and unwise."
"It is alarming that the Jordan School Board would even consider using the economic power of the state's largest school district to influence independent political thinking and action, especially about something as important as primary and secondary education," Swallow said Thursday.
"By forcing their business patrons to take their view on this or any other political issue, they would be violating (public) trust, plain and simple. If that type of unfair political influence is not illegal, I have a hunch it will be soon."
Fellow board members also have legal questions. Business administrator Burke Jolley noted the district has asked potential contractors about Y2K compliance. But some board members felt that was a technical question, not a political one.
Carol Lear, director of school law and legislation for the State Office of Education, agrees.
"Y2K is not a philosophical question. It's like asking if you have adequate manpower to do the job," she said. "I think once you start asking philosophical or issue-oriented questions, I think there would be First Amendment implications."
Tuition tax credits have inspired national debate. They are available in some form in cities such as Milwaukee. Research on outcomes is mixed.
The U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether parents can use publicly funded vouchers to attend religious schools. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Cleveland law allowing students to use vouchers to attend parochial schools was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court will hear the case sometime early next year with a decision expected by summer.
In Utah, school boards, teachers unions, the Utah PTA and other public school leaders and groups say tuition tax credits would take money from public schools, which receive 100 percent of Utah's income tax, and widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Tuition tax credit supporters say the opposite. They are adamant the credits will relieve an overcrowded public school system and give low-income residents opportunities to choose private schools that might better serve their needs. They also say the credits would leave in the public schools' budget part of the $2,100 the state spends on each student.
For instance, Swallow's 2001 bill sought to phase in a tuition tax credit of up to $1,500. He pulled the bill after it passed committee to offer more time for public discussion.
He is drafting a similar bill for the 2002 Legislature, which might narrow the credit's scope to student performance or need and limit the credit to elementary students.
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com