National
School Choice Week
Heritage
Foundation
School
Choice Blooming this Spring
By Rachel Sheffield
April 2, 2013
School
choice is making headlines
in multiple states this spring. Several have approved or are
considering
proposals to expand educational opportunity for families.
Texas
is going bold by introducing
multiple school choice proposals. Heritage’s Lindsey Burke explains
that these
include:
an
elimination of the cap on
charter schools (only 215 are currently allowed to operate), creation
of
special needs scholarships to allow children with disabilities to
attend
private schools of choice, and a tuition tax credit program that would
provide
tax credits to businesses that donate to nonprofits that provide
vouchers to
low-income children to attend private schools.
Texas
State Senator Dan Patrick
(R–Houston), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, noted that
“several
hundred thousand students are stuck in low-performing schools today.
This
should not be acceptable to anyone.” Patrick says school choice would
give
opportunities to families to find “the best educational options for
their
children.”
Also
down south, Alabama made a
surprise and historic move by passing its first private school choice
program
earlier this month. Governor Robert Bentley (R) called it “the most
significant
piece of legislation that’s been passed in this Legislature in years.”
Families, individuals, and corporations will be able to receive tax
credits for
donating to scholarship-granting organizations. Children in failing
schools
will be able to apply to receive the scholarships, allowing them to
attend a
private school of choice.
A
little further north, Tennessee
is considering a voucher program for low-income students in
underperforming
schools. The program would be limited to children who qualify for free
and
reduced-priced lunch and attend the lowest-performing 5 percent of
schools.
Initially, the program would cap vouchers at 5,000 students, but would
expand
that to 20,000 by the 2016–2017 school year.
Besides
the proposals, school
choice won a victory in the courts last week, when the Indiana Supreme
Court
ruled in favor of the Choice Scholarship Program, put in place in 2011.
Burke
explains:
Indiana’s
highest court ruled
unanimously in Meredith v. Pence that the Choice Scholarship Program
(CSP),
which provides vouchers to low-income and middle-income families in the
Hoosier
State, is constitutional. The suit, brought by the teachers unions,
sought to
end the country’s largest and most inclusive school voucher program…
Read
the rest of the article at
Heritage Foundation
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