{"id":20769,"date":"2015-05-06T10:47:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T17:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=20769"},"modified":"2015-05-06T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T18:12:00","slug":"americas-best-school-choice-program-awaits-action-in-state-senate-finance-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/americas-best-school-choice-program-awaits-action-in-state-senate-finance-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s best school choice program awaits action in State Senate Finance Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill would solve the state\u2019s long-running K-12 problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Americas<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Victor<\/a>(Victor Joecks of NPRI)<\/em> –\u00a0As of New Year\u2019s Day<\/a>, 24 states and Washington, D.C., were running 51 school choice programs. Within the next four months, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Nevada<\/a> have all enacted\u00a0new<\/em> school choice programs.<\/p>\n

None of these programs, however, measure up to the one that Senate Bill 302 would bring into being<\/a>. Introduced by Sen. Scott Hammond, SB302 would \u2014 at one stroke \u2014 launch the most promising K-12 educational program in the nation.<\/p>\n

The legislation would allow all students currently enrolled in public schools to use Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) to attend whichever schools they and their parents select.<\/p>\n

Currently, SB302 sits in legislative limbo in the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Ben Kieckhefer. Although the bill is exempt from deadlines, it has no hearing date.<\/p>\n

First introduced by the Goldwater Institute<\/a>, ESAs improve on vouchers in multiple ways. Most importantly, ESAs, like vouchers, allow parents to select the school that\u2019s best for their child. Unlike vouchers, however, ESAs put a portion of the money that would have been spent on a child\u2019s K-12 public-school education into a personal<\/em> account for each participating student. Parents would receive 90 percent of the normal per-pupil state and local funding. Access to the money would most likely be by use-restricted debit card.<\/p>\n

Vouchers, however, can only be used at one school. Parents either use the funds or lose them. This isn\u2019t the case with ESAs. Parents can use funds from their ESAs for a variety of purposes<\/a>\u00a0including online courses, tutoring, textbooks and even transportation for their child.<\/p>\n

For the first time, participating parents would be able to customize their child\u2019s education, based on what\u2019s best for each child. Any money not spent can be saved and even used for future college expenses.<\/p>\n

ESAs also avoid the Constitutional problems faced by vouchers in some states, given \u201cBlaine\u201d amendments<\/a> adopted in many states in the late 1800s, including Nevada, to keep government funds from supporting Catholic schools.<\/p>\n

While the Institute for Justice has noted that vouchers are constitutional<\/a> under Nevada\u2019s Blaine Amendment, ESAs provide government funds directly to parents, rather than to schools. Then parents \u2014 rather than the government \u2014 decide how to spend the money funding their child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

When a government employee donates a portion of his or her paycheck to a religious organization, it is not considered government \u201csupport\u201d of religion. Similarly, ESAs allow parents to decide how their child\u2019s education funds will be spent, including whether they will be spent at a religiously affiliated school.<\/p>\n

In Arizona, where vouchers were deemed unconstitutional under the state\u2019s Blaine Amendment, ESAs have been held constitutional<\/a> by the state\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Dr. Matthew Ladner, senior policy and research advisor for the Foundation for Excellence in Education \u2014 which was founded by former Florida gov. Jeb Bush \u2014 has called ESAs the way of the future<\/a>, and he\u2019s right. Lawmakers in Florida<\/a>, Mississippi<\/a> and Tennessee<\/a> have all passed ESA bills in recent years, while Arizona has expanded its ESA program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

None of those states, however, offer an ESA program with universal eligibility. While current private school students are not eligible \u2014 necessary for the program to be a money saver \u2014 SB302 would create the best school choice program in the country and solve Nevada\u2019s decades-long educational achievement problem.<\/p>\n

Assemblyman Pat Hickey, one of the first legislative champions of charter schools in the 1990s,\u00a0recently noted the need for and benefits<\/a> of SB302:<\/p>\n

Additionally, studies show that parents who enroll their children in a school choice program tend to be more satisfied with the educational system \u2014 and tend to be more involved in their children\u2019s school.\u00a0Winners all around.<\/p>\n

As I listen\u00a0to parents from depressed socio-economic neighborhoods testify before the Education Committee about the power \u201cschool choice\u201d would give them over the schooling of their own children, I am convinced that it is a good thing and that it will inspire those parents to be more involved in the success of their students.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If SB302 gets to the Assembly, it would receive an enthusiastic reception and pass easily. Currently, however, it remains in Senate Finance \u2014 and the clock is ticking.<\/p>\n

Gov. Brian Sandoval, with a single word, could move SB302 back out into the light of day \u2014 giving Nevada the single best school choice program in the entire country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0original version of this column<\/a><\/span>\u00a0was\u00a0published\u00a0at NPRI’s website.<\/em><\/p>\n

Victor Joecks is executive vice president of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan, free-market think tank\u00a0that produces and shares ideas and information that empowers people. \u00a0For more information, please visit www.NPRI.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill would solve the state\u2019s long-running K-12 problems (Victor Joecks of NPRI) –\u00a0As of New Year\u2019s Day, 24 states and Washington, D.C., were running 51 school choice programs. Within the next four months, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Nevada have all enacted\u00a0new school choice programs. None of these programs, however, measure up to the one that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20769"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20774,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20769\/revisions\/20774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}