Strong Schools Build Strong Neighborhoods

Arizona Public School Tax Credit

You don’t have to have a child in school to have a stake in the school down the street.

Strong, high-quality public schools are part of the backbone of strong neighborhoods. They educate our children, bring families together, create community identity and give people another reason to put down roots and invest in the place they call home.

When a neighborhood school thrives, the benefits extend well beyond its students and parents. A successful school contributes to a neighborhood that feels stable, connected and worth caring about.

Shaw Butte Elementary is not just a school in our neighborhood. It is one of our neighborhood’s most important public institutions.

A Neighborhood Asset Worth Protecting

For generations, the basic idea of public education was simple: communities pooled their resources to maintain good schools that were open and accountable to the public and available to the children who lived there.

That system is changing.

Arizona families today have many educational choices, including open enrollment, charter schools, private schools, homeschooling and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). Individual families may have perfectly valid reasons for choosing any of them.

But there is another side of “school choice” that is often overlooked: individual choices can have collective consequences for the neighborhood schools left behind.

Public-school funding is heavily tied to enrollment. When students leave a district school, funding leaves with them—but many of the costs of operating a neighborhood school do not disappear along with one student.

The building still has to open. Teachers and staff are still needed. The library, playground, cafeteria, utilities and facilities still have to be maintained. And the neighborhood school must remain prepared to serve the children who live here.

Choice for one family can mean fewer resources for the shared institution that serves everyone.

That does not make families who choose another option wrong. It does mean the rest of us should understand what is happening—and recognize that healthy neighborhood schools cannot simply be taken for granted.

Public Schools Need Public Support

Over the years, Arizona has increasingly created ways for education funding to follow students outside their neighborhood district schools.

Charter schools compete for enrollment. ESAs can redirect state education funding toward private-school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring and other educational expenses. Meanwhile, district schools continue carrying the enormous responsibility of maintaining the public educational infrastructure that communities depend upon.

These policies are sometimes discussed as though they simply create more choices without creating tradeoffs.

There are tradeoffs.

When enrollment and funding are spread among more and more providers, the neighborhood public school has fewer resources with which to provide the programs, activities and opportunities that help attract families and keep the school strong.

That can become a cycle:

Fewer students → less funding → fewer opportunities → greater difficulty attracting and retaining students → still less funding.

Breaking this cycle requires more than asking schools to do more with less. It requires communities to decide that their neighborhood public schools are worth supporting.

We Can’t Control Everything.

We Can Do This.

Most of us have very little direct influence over the education budgets, funding formulas and school-choice policies adopted at the Arizona State Capitol.

We can vote. We can contact legislators. We can advocate for better policy.

But ultimately, those decisions are made somewhere else.

The Arizona Public School Tax Credit gives us something unusually powerful: a way to put resources directly into our own neighborhood school.

Instead of simply paying your Arizona income-tax liability and allowing the state to decide how that money is ultimately spent, eligible taxpayers can make a contribution directly to Shaw Butte Elementary School and receive a dollar-for-dollar Arizona income-tax credit, subject to the program limits.

For taxpayers with sufficient Arizona income-tax liability, that means you can strengthen the school serving our neighborhood at effectively no net personal cost.

Public School Tax Credit contributions can support eligible programs and improvements that make school a richer, more engaging place for students, including:

  • Extracurricular activities and clubs

  • Arts, athletics and enrichment programs

  • Educational field trips

  • Character-education programs

  • After-school opportunities

  • Eligible testing and educational expenses

  • Certain capital items, playground equipment and other eligible school needs

These are often the experiences that children remember most—and the programs that help turn a school from simply a building where classes take place into a thriving center of childhood and community life.

What Your Contribution Makes Possible

Make a donation online now

Supporting Shaw Butte Elementary is an investment in students—but it is also an investment in Shaw Butte itself.

Keep some of your tax dollars close to home.

Strengthen our school. Strengthen our neighborhood.

Make your Arizona Public School Tax Credit contribution to Shaw Butte Elementary.

The information provided on this page regarding the Arizona Public School Tax Credit is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, professional tax advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • A: Any individual Arizona taxpayer who owes state income tax can contribute. You do not need to have a child enrolled at Shaw Butte Elementary or in the Washington Elementary School District (WESD).

  • A: The maximum amounts you can claim as a dollar-for-dollar credit are:

    • $400 for Married couples filing jointly.

    • $200 for Single, Head of Household, or Married filing separately.

  • A: No. You can donate any amount up to the maximum limit for your filing status. We appreciate every dollar!

  • A: No. The public school tax credit is only available to individual Arizona taxpayers.

  • A: It is a tax credit. A credit is much more valuable than a deduction because it is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your state tax liability. A deduction only reduces your taxable income.

  • A: Contributions must be made on or before April 15th (or the annual state tax filing deadline) to be claimed on the prior calendar year's tax return.

  • A:Yes! Your contribution will increase the amount of your refund. For example, if you were due a $100 refund and you contribute $200, your refund would increase to $300.

  • A: The credit is nonrefundable, meaning it can only reduce your tax liability to zero. However, any unused portion of the credit may be carried forward for up to five consecutive taxable years.

  • A: No. The Public School Tax Credit is separate and does not affect your ability to claim other Arizona tax credits.

  • A: You will complete Arizona Form 322 and include it with your state income tax return. You will need to keep your receipt for your records.

  • A: The Arizona Department of Revenue requires the school's CTDS (County Code, Type Code, and District Code & Site Number) on Form 322.

    • Shaw Butte Elementary CTDS Number: 07-04-06-160

The information provided on this page regarding the Arizona Public School Tax Credit is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, professional tax advice.