Qualified Zone Academies (language only)

Item 127 #1c

Language
Page 81, line 8, before "By" insert "A."
Page 81, after line 21, insert:
"B.  The Secretary of Education is hereby authorized to make allocations to qualified zone academies of the portion of the national zone academy bond limitation amount to be allocated annually to the Commonwealth of Virginia pursuant to Section 1397E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and to provide for carryovers of any unused limitation amount.  In making such allocations, the Secretary of Education is directed to give priority to allocation requests for qualified zone academies having at least 50 percent free lunch participation and either (i) located in federal enterprise communities, or (ii) located in cities and counties within which federal enterprise communities are located."

Explanation
(This amendment designates the Secretary of Education as the entity responsible for designating the projects which qualify for federal tax credits available under the Qualified Zone Academy provisions of the federal tax code. The tax credits are provided by the federal government to institutions providing loans for qualified projects in order to, in effect, buy down the interest costs for the borrower to zero percent.)