Bill > S1798

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the Public Education Innovation Fund ("fund") in the Department of Education and provides corporation business tax and gross income tax credits to businesses for making qualified education donations to the fund. Under the bill, the Commissioner of Education would award grants from the fund to low-performing public schools in this State for the implementation of educational innovation programs. The commissioner would award grants to qualifying schools through a competitive application process, subject to the availability of monies in the fund. The bill defines "educational innovation program" as any program that implements innovative strategies to mitigate or eliminate one or more barriers to academic achievement at a low-performing public school. Under the bill, a "low-performing public school" is defined as a school located in New Jersey, under collegiate grade, that is operated by a school district or a charter school established pursuant to current law, and that meets the following criteria: (1) among all students in that school to whom a State assessment was administered, the sum of the percent of students scoring in the not yet meeting expectations and partially meeting expectations categories in both the language arts and mathematics subject areas of the State assessments exceeded 40 percent in each of the prior two school years; or (2) among all students in that school to whom a State assessment was administered, the sum of the percent of students scoring in the not yet meeting expectations and partially meeting expectations categories in either the language arts or mathematics subject areas of the State assessment exceeded 65 percent in each of the prior two school years. The bill provides that business entities may apply to the commissioner for corporation business tax or gross income tax credits for the amount of qualified education donations made to the fund in any year. For a business entity that is a corporation business taxpayer, the bill caps the amount of the credit at 75 percent of the business's tax liability otherwise due for the privilege period. For a business entity that is a gross income taxpayer, the bill caps the amount of the credit at $10,000 of the business's qualified education donations made during the taxable year. The bill limits the total amount of tax credits approved under the bill at $5,000,000 for each State fiscal year.

AI Summary

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Angela Mcknight (D)*,  Troy Singleton (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document