Adrienne Runnebaum is the Director of Tax Credits for the Catholic Education Foundation.
I recently joined the CEF staff in March as the new Director of Tax Credits. I am honored to be part of this remarkable organization and I look forward to serving the mission of CEF to make a faith-filled quality education possible for families in need.
We are excited to share that we will be able to provide even more scholarship opportunities due to CEF’s participation in the new Kansas Tax Credit for Low-Income Student Scholarships program. This School Choice program provides low-income families the opportunity to choose a private education that they might not otherwise be able to afford. The Kansas Legislature enacted this program in 2014 and it went into effect January 1, 2015. It allows qualified businesses to make a contribution to a registered Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). In turn, the business receives a 70% tax credit for their contribution and the SGO administers educational scholarships to eligible students.
You may be thinking…what exactly is School Choice? There are approximately 29 states participating in a School Choice initiative such as tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts (ESA), vouchers, or individual tax credits/deductions. These programs empower families, especially those living in poverty, to choose the schooling option (public, private, online, homeschool, etc.) that best fits their child’s individual needs so they can excel.
After an extensive analysis, CEF became a registered Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) for the Kansas Tax Credit for Low-Income Student Scholarships program to serve all the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. The majority of students who will benefit from this program will be in Wyandotte County, Topeka, Leavenworth, and Ottawa based upon the student eligibility requirements. We’re pleased to share that we’ve had initial success with this program over the last eight months. Thanks to the generous contributions of our business partners, we will be able to provide Tax Credit Scholarships to 69 students at 11 Archdiocesan schools this August!
It’s important to note that our current students cannot take advantage of this new opportunity and not all students will meet the criteria. Therefore, we will continue to rely on the generosity of our donors to serve all of our CEF families.
I’m a big fan of quotes so I leave you with one of my favorites from Pope Francis regarding our youth: “Dear young people-do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you! Do not be afraid to dream of great things!”
We wish all of our Catholic School students, administrators, teachers, and staff a successful and blessed school year!
