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Merchants & Marine Bank has made $225,000 in contributions toward high-quality pre-kindergarten services in three Mississippi school districts. The Early Learning Collaboratives of the George County School District, the Hattiesburg Public School District, and the Lamar County School District each received $75,000 to provide pre-K programs to their respective communities.  Â
âWe are honored to support these early learning collaboratives as they are making a difference in so many young lives,â said Clayton Legear, Merchants & Marine Bank President and CEO. âMerchants & Marine Bank has a long-standing record of supporting our communities, because our communities support us. We have a responsibility to give back and I canât think of a better way to do that than by supporting those who are working to give youngsters the skills and support they need to succeed in school.â  Â
Tax credit available for donation to early learning collaboratives
Tax credit available for donation to early learning collaboratives By Caroline Wood | December 14, 2020 at 9:24 PM CST - Updated December 14 at 10:17 PM
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - The Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013 established the ELC program in Mississippi.
Part of the bill allows for a tax credit for anyone who donates to a state-funded early learning collaborative. The state of Mississippi has 18 of them, one being in the Hattiesburg Public School District.
The one-for-one tax credit has a $1 million ceiling.
“So much was focused on the first-ever state funding that would go into Pre-K,” said Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker. “And so as of this year, it’s $7.9 million per year. Well, another part of that bill was to create a tax credit. Over the course of two years, the $2.1 million dollars that Hattiesburg will get, it has to match that with $2.1 million.”