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.”