North Carolina Joins School Choice Fold with Major Tax Credit for Families with Disabled Children, New School Choice Yearbook Reveals

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The largest ever individual state income tax credit for educational expenses will be available this year to North Carolina families who send children with disabilities to the private schools of their parents' choice, according to the School Choice Yearbook 2011-12—the annual award-winning publication offering the most comprehensive data on the nation's 27 private school choice programs—released yesterday by the Alliance for School Choice.

An individual tuition tax credit of up to $6,000 will be available to parents in the Tar Heel State who send children with disabilities to private schools. While individual tuition tax credits currently exist in a small number of states, it marks the first credit of significant size, meaning that it will benefit families who otherwise would be unable to send their children to the schools of their choice.

The passage of the tuition tax credit—which received the support of 65 percent of Democrats in the state legislature —was just one of many significant bipartisan educational achievements in North Carolina last year. The legislature also voted to remove the cap on the number of charter schools in the state, thereby doing away with an arbitrary limit that stretched charter school waiting lists to as many as 20,000 students last year.

More information about last year's reforms in North Carolina and across the nation can be found in the Yearbook, available for download at www.YearofSchoolChoice.org.

The Alliance's annual Yearbook is a collection of the nation's most accurate data on private school choice programs across the country.  The release of the 2011-12 edition, which chronicles both new programs and expansion nationwide, recaps what The Wall Street Journal dubbed "The Year of School Choice."

In addition to an analysis of trends and information regarding school choice, the Yearbook offers a directory of the accountability provisions and requirements for each of the 27 private school choice programs and a chronicle of the events from the past year.

The Alliance for School Choice is a leading national organization promoting school choice. For more information, or to download the Yearbook, visit www.AllianceForSchoolChoice.org.

SOURCE Alliance for School Choice