Tax Breaks for Independent Schools

One of the candidates for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party is proposing tax breaks for families who educate their children outside of the public school system. Andrew Scheer unveiled a policy position last week, promising tuition tax credits of up to four thousand dollars per child for families who have children in independent schools, and one thousand dollars per child for home-schooling families. Scheer says this is a logical extension of existing federal policy which provides some tax relief to parents who pay post-secondary education tuition for their children, and he says the proposal also acknowledges the positive impact of alternative forms of education. “When you think about it, families who either home-school their children or send them to an independent school are really helping the public system. The parents pay the taxes to support the public system, but the child does not attend, so there’s extra resources going into the system that (these) children are not picking up.” He says if every family who currently homeschools or uses independent schools were to put their children into the public school system, there would be a “massive drain” on the public system, and “likely tax increases to pay for it.”

Scheer released that policy position late last week. On Monday, candidate Brad Trost released a substantially similar policy proposal.