By J.D. Long-García | May 7, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

They could barely see her peering over the podium.

Trinity Good, a first-grader at St. Gregory School, thanked corporate donors for giving her a chance at a Catholic education during an April 24 breakfast organized by the Catholic Tuition Organization of the Diocese of Phoenix.

“People at St. Gregory make me feel special. They don’t just care about me when I’m at school. They care about me forever,” Good said. “The reason I get to go to St. Gregory School is because grownups give money to the CTODP.”

The Catholic Tuition Organization of the Diocese of Phoenix, thanks to state tax credits, works to provide affordable tuition through grants and scholarships. The dollar-for-dollar tax credit is available for up to $500 per individual or $1,000 for a married couple filing a joint tax return. Catholics can designate their donation for a particular school.

Corporations can also get in on the giving. They can make contributions to the tuition organization and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to the amount of their tax liability.

In March, an Arizona court of appeals upheld the constitutionality of the corporate tax credit. Also, the Arizona State House of Representatives has taken steps toward making the tax credit permanent, according to Paul Mulligan, executive director of the tuition organization.

But it hasn’t all been good news. The tuition organization has felt the impact of the sputtering economy, Mulligan said. They lost 40 percent of donors from 2007 to 2008.

“People gave less and fewer gave,” he said, but noted that 35 percent of donors were new. “The good news is that a lot of growth potential, and the onus is certainly on us.”

The state will pay a maximum of $3,000 per student in Catholic school through the tax credit.

“It’s pretty simple math,” Mulligan said. “For public education for that child, it’d cost around $9,500. When you ‘outsource’ the job for $3,000, that’s money positive for the state of Arizona.”