Joe Wilson: “This issue of, well, would it be draining resources from the public schools in some ways. There are some people who…”

“This issue of, well, would it be draining resources from the public schools in some ways. There are some people who disagree with this, but we have for many years in this country used the Tax Code to encourage people to do things, to encourage people to make choices, to encourage people to save for their retirement, to encourage people to invest and buy a home. What we are doing in this bill with the Tax Code is encouraging them to invest in the education of their children. While some people disagree with using our Tax Code that way, I have to say that I think it is a noble goal. The folks who work at the Joint Committee on Taxation have estimated that this kind of a program based on what is happening in other similar kinds of tax changes would result in $12 billion of investment in our schools that is not there now. $12 billion nationwide, 70 percent of which would go to kids who are in public school to wrap those additional things around them that maybe the public school just could not directly afford but parents working together with teachers might be able to do. I think that that is a noble goal.”