[quote=SK in CV]Give the money directly to the school district or even school. That’s how AZ does it. The tax credit form requires that you specify the school or school district. In fact, you can even specify the program within the school to get the funds. I send $400 (almost) directly to my niece’s classroom. She gets to have aids in her 16 kid, all non-verbal, special ed classroom because of the money she raises. I get credit exactly (for me anyway, there are limitations) like an estimated tax payment on my AZ return and a charitable deduction on my federal return.[/quote]

Another good point. I stopped donating directly to my school district’s general pool fund. I make my donations directly to the specific school’s science and grade teachers classroom, complete with receipt….need a new computer to run the latest simple machine tool? done…. Just make sure you get a nice receipt.