Public Funding of a Private Enterprise Some groups support the right of parents to send their children to private or religious schools but oppose the use of public funds to do so. The primary reason for this opposition is that public funding of private or religious education diverts valuable taxpayer dollars from public schools, which are free and open to all children, accountable to both parents and taxpayers, and essential to our democracy, private and religious schools. . Private and religious schools, in turn, charge for their services, select their students based on religious, academic, family or personal characteristics, and are accountable only to their boards and clients. Mixing public funds with private initiatives can get complicated, opponents say. The award of public funds to public entities includes the right to verify, inspect and review funding for such entities. The same cannot be said of the money allocated to private schools. Of particular concern is the possibility of discrimination. Because private schools are allowed to set certain admissions criteria, there is a risk of discrimination against a group on the basis of religion or ethnicity, opponents say. This would be an unacceptable consequence inherent in public financing of a private enterprise. An alternative tax credit program to the school voucher system has been proposed. One such program allows taxpayers to donate money to nonprofit scholarship groups; come tax time, they get their money back, dollar for dollar. Scholarship organizations collect the money and award it to low-income students. Unlike vouchers, which are susceptible to the above objection, the tax credit is immune from the public financing burdens of a private enterprise. Donations are private and voluntary, similar to the federal deduction for charitable donations.