Prohibits participation in federal school voucher tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations unless both the general assembly and the governor approve such participation.

## Plain-English Summary

This bill is about a specific type of federal program that gives people and businesses a tax credit (a reduction in their federal taxes) when they donate money to organizations that provide private school scholarships, sometimes called "school vouchers." These scholarships can be used by students to pay for tuition at private or religious schools instead of attending their local public school. This bill would prevent Rhode Island from automatically participating in any such federal program.

Specifically, the bill says that before Rhode Island could join or participate in a federal school voucher tax credit program, **both the Rhode Island General Assembly (the state legislature) and the governor would have to formally approve** that participation. In other words, it wouldn't just happen automatically — state leaders would have to deliberately vote and sign off on it first.

This bill affects a wide range of people. Families considering using scholarships to send their children to private schools, private and religious schools that might receive scholarship funding, and donors who might want to contribute to scholarship organizations would all be impacted, since the state would need to take an extra approval step before any such program could move forward. Public school advocates may also have an interest, since these types of programs can redirect students away from public schools.

The bill has been introduced and sent to the House Finance Committee, where members will review and discuss it before deciding whether to move it forward. At this stage, it has not yet been voted on or signed into law.