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September 3, 2004/Elul 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 50
Tax credit funds education
STEPHANIE N. HENSCHEL
Staff Writer
The Jewish Community Day School Scholarship Fund provided $1.135 million in scholarship funds - an 18 percent increase from last year - to about 280 students attending seven participating Jewish day schools and kinder-gartens in the Valley for the 2004-2005 school year.
The funds, generated through state school-tax credits to the Jewish com-munity's scholarship tuition organization (STO), aim to help families who wish to send their children to a Jewish Day school and may not be able to afford it otherwise.
Students wanting to attend Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, The King David School, Pardes Jewish Day School, Phoenix Hebrew Academy, Tri-City Jewish Community Center Day School, Beth El Kin-dergarten and the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center Kindergarten are eligible to submit applications for scholarship assistance. Recipients are chosen based on a formula calculating financial need, taking into consideration the number of children a family has in day schools.
"We try to even out the playing field to make sure everyone gets the appropriate amount," said Mark Schwartz, president of the program.
Which school the student attends matters very little.
"It's not our issue which school the child goes to," Schwartz said. "We just want to get them there."
Schwartz said the tax-credit program was established by the state of Arizona in 1997.
"We are the primary support getting these kids to school," Schwartz said. "We are providing the support the state of Arizona wanted us to do."
What is so great about the tax credit is that it costs the contributor nothing out of pocket, he explained. It allows an individual to contribute up to $500 to the STO, and a married couple to contribute up to $625. For example, a single person who gives $300 to the STO and owes $300 in Arizona income tax reduces his or her tax liability to zero.
"It's a no-brainer," Schwartz said. "It allows people to make up their minds whether to pay their dollars to the state or to provide a Jewish education to a Jewish child."
Recipients of the scholar-ships were informed in May for the first round, July for the second, and mid-August for the final round. The schools were sent a list on Aug. 31 to confirm that the students were in fact enrolled.
To Schwartz and others involved in the program, it becomes like an "obsession."
"Truly, these kids would not be able to go to school and receive a Jewish education (without the STO)," he said. "It's making their school days memorable to them."
Sari Romberg, the new director for the Beth El Center for Early Education agreed. She said six of the eight students enrolled in the program are there because they receive STO aid.
And the response from the parents has been very positive.
"They're obviously thrilled with it because at this point they could be going somewhere else for free," she said. "But with the STO, their children get a Jewish education."
Ilene Blau, executive director of the Tri-City JCC, said the STO is "enormously important for the viability of all the schools."
"There would be far fewer students enrolled without the financial help," she said.
Blau said the number of children receiving aid at Tri-City JCC increased this year, though the amount awarded had decreased, based on this year's different criteria.
Katie O'Connor, admissions coordinator at Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, called the selection process "equitable."
"Overall, we're very happy with it," she said.
Contact the writer here
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