Louisiana – ACE Scholarships

ACE Scholarships (ACE) provides more than 1,500 scholarships to economically disadvantaged students attending 147 K-12 partner private schools within the state of Louisiana. COVID-19 and the shutdown of schools and businesses have impacted these greatly. We surveyed 1226 Louisiana ACE families to get a better sense of how families are dealing with and how they are coping with this extraordinary crisis. Three hundred thirty-four families responded to the survey giving us a response rate of 27.2 percent.

Key Findings:

A majority of families have been financially impacted with loss of jobs, reduced hours, or the need to stay home due to their children’s school being shut down.

Due to the school shutdowns, schools have unexpectedly had to find ways to facilitate distance learning. Nearly 75 percent of ACE partner schools deliver via online and video conference platforms. However, not all schools have relied on the internet for lessons and instruction. Some have allowed families to pick up hard-copy materials, and others have used calling or texting to get coursework to students.

While most families have been able to cope with a predominantly online approach to school, 15 percent of low-income ACE students have had to cope with substantial barriers that can inhibit their access to learning.

For the families that faced access barriers to online remote learning, the main issues are the lack of high-speed broadband internet or the lack of computer devices. Nearly four out of every 10 students lack access to a computer, tablet, or device needed to online learning. More than six in 10 students either do not have internet available in their area, cannot afford broadband internet service, or have slow internet and connectivity issues.

Looking to the future, families shared their concern that life is not going to return to normal anytime soon. Economically disadvantaged families know the difficulties of living paycheck to paycheck. When their paycheck stops it hits them harder than most due to a lack of savings. This puts them further behind making a longer road to recovery. ACE families, in particular, are acutely aware of the sacrifices they must make to get their child in a better and safer education environment. These financial sacrifices will be even harder due to the expected long-term nature and probability of the COVID-19 return this fall.

In addition to gathering statistical data, the survey ask two qualitative, open-ended questions:

How has COVID-19 and the related closures affected your life, family situation and learning experience for your children?
Have you or your school undertaken any efforts to serve your community during this time of crisis?

The answers to these questions provided a deeper insight into the effects of COVID-19 on families’ physical and mental state. Using a number of oft-repeated key words, we were able to identify a general theme in these often very personal responses: Although there is much anxiety, fear, and worry about the immediate future, families are using this time to build closer family bonds and help others.

Some of the frequent words used in their responses were as follows:

Adjusting	Afraid	Anxious	Checking on others
Coming together	Depressed	Difficult	Encouraging others
Family bonding	Financial worry	Helping	Hopeful
Scared	Stressed	Students falling behind	Looking out for others
Lack motivation	Missing family	Missing friends	Missing school
Overwhelmed	Sorrow (loss of loved ones)	Struggling with learning	Thankful
Worried about family	Worried about not being able to afford to return to their school this fall

Even though a large majority of ACE families have been financially impacted, they are still finding ways to be connected with their communities and assist others. Here are the most common ways families are helping others:

Baking for neighbors
Chalking encouraging sidewalk messages for neighbors
Donating blood
Making encouraging videos of acts of kindness around their town to share on social media
Making masks and donating to those on the front lines and others who need them
Making signs and placing them in yards thanking healthcare workers
Printing out school lessons for others
Running errands for neighbors (groceries, medicines, taking them to appointments, etc.)
Writing notes to healthcare workers, family, and the elderly

Schools and communities are also finding ways to serve their neediest students through this crisis. Below are the most common methods students and families are being helped.

Food boxes and meals for those in need
Offering devices to students who don’t have them
Offering professional, psychological, and emotional support to those who need it
Recording students thanking front line workers and distributing the video to those workers
Serving food to healthcare workers
Teachers are spending extra time helping students
Working with nursing homes to assist the elderly

To review all the data, click here to review the full survey.

ACE is also conducting this survey in the seven other ACE states to discover how different communities are responding to COVID-19.

Back in August, the IRS issued a proposed rule on federal charitable contribution deductions under state tax credit programs. For a refresher on this rule and its implications, see our previous post on the topic. For those just tuning in, the short version is that the IRS is considering a regulatory change that would forbid donors from receiving both a state tax credit and a federal charitable contribution deduction for the same gift.

The federal rulemaking process is a complicated one, as you can see below. The process for this rule has been slightly different because of a special agreement reached between the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury regarding the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The public comment period (about halfway down the chart) on the proposed rule officially ended earlier this month. All told, nearly 8,000 individuals and organizations submitted comments on the rule. Unfortunately, many of these comments were submitted by opponents of parental choice in education—opponents who are thrilled at the prospect that the proposed rule could damage longstanding scholarship tax credit programs.

The negative comments tended to follow a template that offered little in the way of practical input. Instead, they thanked the IRS for the “ending of a tax shelter that allows taxpayers to turn a profit when they fund private schools through state tuition tax credit programs.” While there is a valid argument to be made that donors should not be able to “profit” from charitable contributions, these folks fail to mention that the scholarship programs they are targeting serve nearly 300,000 students nationwide.

Opponents were not the only ones who showed up to make their voices heard. Dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals who support or benefit from scholarship programs submitted their own comments. Many of these comments criticized the IRS for failing to distinguish private charities from government-run workaround entities. Others offered substantive suggestions on how to avoid harming disadvantaged scholarship students as the rule moves forward.

ACE worked with its partner schools and scholarship families in Kansas and Louisiana to submit hundreds of comments asking the agency to consider ways to mitigate negative impacts on scholarship students. ACE also submitted a more detailed comment to the IRS making the following points:

Because the problem the IRS is seeking to address were created by federal legislation, allowing Congress to address the issue may be more appropriate (and effective) than a blanket regulatory solution.
The IRS should consider a phased implementation that would minimize shocks to existing scholarship programs.
If a phased implementation is not possible, the IRS should at the very least delay the rule’s effective date.

The IRS is currently reviewing comments on the rule, and will hear direct testimony on the issue at a Nov. 5 hearing in Washington, D.C. After that, the agency will begin revising the rule into its final form before another round of review. ACE will continue watching the process closely as the rule moves toward finalization.

Louisiana Family COVID-19 Survey Findings

Thousands Voice Opinions on IRS Proposed Rule