Yesterday’s HaModia’s editorial paints a pretty good picture of the tuition tax credit issue, tracing the concept to its origin in 1997, when Arizona enacted theirs. It also details the legal history of challenges at the state and federal levels, which have invariably ended with court rulings that tax credits are fully, constitutionally speaking, kosher.

And we are glad to see this focus on tuition tax credits, including scholarship tax credits. These programs, the latest of which was enacted in Indiana just days ago, have been a boon to private school parents looking for tuition relief as well as for public school parents looking to give their children an extra edge with tutoring or enrichment programs.

But folks, let’s not forget that it was Minnesota, back in the 1950s that enacted a tax deduction and later a tax credit for parents who pay for educational expenses for their children. That deduction and credit are also, says the US Supreme Court, constitutional, with no requirement of an intervening scholarship organization. All these models are good – and we’ve seen the scholarship model as well as the direct parental model proposed in various states this year, with only the Hoosiers making a go of it.

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