The following information comes from our friends in D.C. at the Council for American Private Education (CAPE):

Parking Lot Tax Repealed

A great provision of the recently passed federal budget deal (see story below) is language repealing the 21 percent tax on some of the fringe benefits nonprofit organizations, including private schools, provide their employees. Those benefits include transportation-related expenses like parking, transit passes, and commuting subsidies.

The immensely unpopular and confusing tax was passed with little notice as part of the tax bill approved by Congress in 2017, only to cause an uproar when knowledge of the provision began to spread. To the relief of many in the nonprofit community, this short-lived tax is now history, thanks to advocacy by hundreds of groups like WCRIS.

Supreme Court Accepts Important “Ministerial Exception” Cases

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear two important cases this year involving religious schools and the “ministerial exception.”

“In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel, the justices will consider the scope of the ‘ministerial exception,'” according to SCOTUSblog. The cases involve lower court interpretations of the Supreme Court’s landmark 9-0 decision in Hosanna-Tabor (2012), which protected the First Amendment right of a Lutheran church school to choose its teachers.

According to the outstanding people at Becket, who made the following video, “Under the ministerial exception, church schools like Our Lady of Guadalupe have the First Amendment right to choose who teaches the faith to the next generation, free from any government interference.”

The Court’s decision will be released later this year. Stay tuned to Current Events for an update.

Congress, President Reach Budget Deal

On December 20, President Trump signed into law a budget deal negotiated by Congress and the White House. The $1.4 trillion spending package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 includes:

  • $16.3 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of $450 million over the 2019 level.
  • $2.1 billion for Title II-A, which funds professional development for teachers and administrators, an increase of $76 million over the 2019 level.
  • $1.2 billion for Title IV-A, which provides Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (SSAEG), an increase of $40 million over last year’s level.

WCRIS is the official State Chapter of the CAPE. Your school’s membership in CAPE is included in your WCRIS membership.