School choice is on the ballot in Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska, reports Elaine S. Povich in Stateline.
Kentucky voters will decide whether public money can be used for private schooling.
In Colorado, the ballot measure would add language to the state constitution saying that each “K-12 child has the right to school choice” and that “parents have the right to direct the education of their children.”
Nebraskans will vote on partial repeal of a new law that sets up a $10 million educational scholarship program for private school students.
Thirty-three states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico already have at least one kind of school choice program, according to EdChoice, she notes.
Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account enabled her to pay for intensive help for her two dyslexic children, writes Jenny Clark, a mother of five. Within weeks of qualifying for an ESA, we "had funding for tutors, therapists, amazing curriculum, books and more."
Clark runs a nonprofit, Love Your School, that helps parents understand their options.
Since Arizona passed a universal ESA two years ago, more private and specialty schools have opened, she writes. "My own children attend a hybrid school three days a week that has over 300 students in year two. The cost is just under our ESA award amount, so taxpayers are saving and parents are getting more choices for their kids."
Here's a new EdChoice report on the fiscal impact of private school choice programs.
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