Is 7 Oregon’s Lucky Number?

Last week Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed legislation enacting a new school choice program for Georgia children. The new law provides for education tax credits on both personal and corporate income taxes for donations made to privately run non-profit Student Scholarship Organizations.

With this new law, Georgia became the sixth state to have an educational tax credit. Shouldn’t Oregon become the seventh?

Georgia’s new law is one of 15 school choice programs nationwide that have no family income restrictions on the awarding of scholarships. Any Georgia child can apply, not only low-income children, children living in carefully specified communities, or children attending schools which the government has determined are “failing.”

This distinction is important, because freedom in education is good for all children, not just for children deemed by the state to be “at risk.”

Every child is unique. Parents, not government bureaucracies, should decide which school is best for their children and be empowered to choose those schools.

23 school choice programs currently exist in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Isn’t it time for Oregon to give all parents real choices in their children’s education?

Visit the website of the Oregon Education Tax Credit Coalition to see how you can help bring more educational options to all of Oregon’s children during the 2009 legislative session. Let’s make 7 Oregon’s lucky number.

Kathryn Hickok is Publications Director, Development Coordinator, and Director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s premier free market think tank.