Cuomo May Look To Push A Backdoor Voucher Plan For Private Schools In Budget

Yesterday the turncoat Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference released an agenda that included this item (emphasis mine):

Creating an Education Investment Tax Credit (EITC) for Public and Private Schools

When it comes to effectively educating our children, New York’s schools need every dollar they can get. The IDC believes in rewarding New Yorkers which opt to voluntarily donate to their local public or private school by finally making these donations tax deductible. In order to make sure every dollar is spent fairly and effectively, tax deductible donations made to private schools must be used to fund scholarship opportunities that qualify.

That's a backdoor voucher plan that looks to take tax money from public schools and give it to private schools.

Today a NY Times article suggests Cuomo - who has supported this kind of program in the past - may push for it in the budget:

Mr. Cuomo has also voiced support for a bill, supported by the Catholic Church and advocates of vouchers, that would offer tax credits to individuals and corporations who donate money to public schools, or to scholarship programs that help poor and middle-class students attend private schools.  

Mr. Cuomo also expressed support for the bill last year, but it failed in the face of opposition from the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver. While the bill is supported by some 20 unions, who say that it would help the children of their members, the New York State teachers’ union staunchly opposes it, calling it a backdoor voucher program that directs tax dollars to private schools.

Cuomo has promised to "break" the public school system this term.

Increasing or completely eliminating the charter cap is certainly one way to do it, but I can see him looking to undercut the system further by steering tax money to private schools via this Education Investment Tax Credit (i.e., voucher) proposal.