Texas families can begin applying for private school vouchers Wednesday, the most significant step yet in a state program set to launch next school year.

Texans have until March 17 to apply for the program, which allows families to receive taxpayer dollars to send children to private school or educate them at home.

If the number of applicants exceeds the $1 billion lawmakers set aside for the program, the state will prioritize students based on family income and whether they have a disability — though neither guarantee access.

The program, overseen by the comptroller, , will launch at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.

As of Wednesday night, more than 35,000 families submitted applications, according to the comptroller’s office.

The state can spend no more than $1 billion on the program during the current two-year budget cycle, which ends Aug. 31, 2027. It is unclear how much the program’s costs could rise — lawmakers will make that determination in future legislative sessions — but state budget experts the tab could escalate to roughly $4.8 billion by 2030.

Here’s what to know about the applications.

Most Texas families with school-age children can apply.

That includes students already attending private school or in home schooling. Families with children in a public school must plan to unenroll them if they want to participate. Parents must also submit proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or evidence the child lawfully resides in the country.

If public demand for the program exceeds available funding, the state will prioritize the following applicants:

• Students with disabilities in families with an annual income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $165,000 a year.
• Families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which includes any four-person household earning less than roughly $66,000.
• Families between 200% and 500% of the poverty level.
• Families at or above 500% of the poverty level; these families can receive up to $200 million of the program’s total budget.

The priority system does not guarantee access to the program, as students must still find a private school to accept them. No state or federal laws require private schools to make learning accommodations for students with disabilities.

In with large-scale voucher programs, participation has skewed toward more affluent and white families with children already in private school.

Families must have several documents prepared.

That Social Security numbers for the parent and child; an IRS Form 1040 for 2024 or 2025; and a Texas identification card or utility bill, lease agreement, mortgage statement or voter registration certificate if the state cannot verify a Texas ID number.

Families can also prove their child’s U.S. citizenship or lawful resident status by submitting documents like birth certificates or certificates of naturalization or citizenship.

For , children must be at least 3 years old and meet at least one of the state criteria for public pre-K. That criteria includes being eligible to participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program, being unable to speak or understand English, or being in foster care. Families with children in foster care must submit proof, such as a court order, adoption documents or a placement order.

Some families could receive up to $30,000 each year.

Most participating families with children in private schools will receive about $10,500 annually. Home-schoolers can receive up to $2,000 per year. Children with disabilities can receive up to $30,000 — an amount based on what it would cost to educate that child in a public school.

To apply for the voucher program, families can submit a Social Security determination letter or a physician’s note as proof their child has a disability.

But to qualify for the higher tier of funding, families must submit an Individualized Education Program, a legal document specifying that a child needs special education services. If families do not have that documentation, they can request it from their local public school. Public schools must complete those requests within 45 days of a parent consenting to the evaluation.

Families will receive the money through education savings accounts. Managed by the , the digital accounts will let families pay tuition and make education-related expenses, like private tutoring, transportation and school meals.

Students must also find private schools to accept them.

During the application process, families must signal their intent to enroll their child in a private school.

But they do not have to officially have their children enrolled until June 1, nearly three months after the application period closes. If parents cannot find a school by the initial deadline, the state will give them until July 15. Private schools will then confirm enrollment between June 15 and July 31.

Private schools, on a rolling basis, can apply to join the program if they have operated a campus for at least two years and received accreditation. They must also administer a nationally recognized exam of their choosing in grades 3-12. The schools are not required to administer the same standardized tests issued to public school kids each year — currently the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.

More than have opted in thus far, with most located in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.

Texas Attorney General stating his belief that the comptroller can block certain schools from participating in the program if they’re “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.”

The opinion came after Acting Comptroller from Paxton, saying schools associated with the accreditation company Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gov. recently designated a terrorist organization.

CAIR has over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has the organization a terrorist group.

As by the Houston Chronicle, hundreds of Cognia schools have been shut out of the program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities. The comptroller’s office has said it is now inviting groups of Cognia schools that it considers in compliance with the law to participate.

Families will start receiving notifications in April.

Those notifications will let parents know they will receive funding — contingent upon enrolling their children in a private school by either the June 1 or July 15 deadline.

The first portion of state funding will become available in families’ education savings accounts between July 1 and mid-August.

This first appeared on .

Supporters want the program to be uncomplicated, both for nonprofits granting scholarships and the private schools participating. Others want to ensure that students who remain in public schools can benefit from the program, while critics oppose the basic concept — a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for those who donate up to $1,700 annually to a scholarship-granting organization.

They want the Trump administration to focus instead on supporting public schools.

 “The federal government should invest in strong, inclusive, well-resourced public schools — not incentives that drain support and weaken safeguards,” one Tennessee man wrote in a letter to the Treasury Department and the IRS, among the more than 2,100 comments on the new law submitted by the Dec. 26 deadline. 

With the tax credit already on the books, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Coalition, which represents more than 200 school choice advocates, private schools and scholarship organizations, wants the administration to keep the program simple. 

The organization wants officials to make it “as easy as possible” for scholarship-granting organizations to participate, for taxpayers to contribute and to “maximize” the number of students who will benefit.

Their letter calls for the administration to clear up some potential confusion.They want officials, for example, to keep recordkeeping requirements for participating nonprofits from being “overly burdensome or onerous.”&�Բ�����;

John Schilling, a consultant who lobbied in favor of the program, said he hopes Treasury officials will release rules by summer. 

‘Very well prepared’

President Donald Trump signed the new program into law in July as part of a large tax cut and spending package. Because it’s hard to predict how many taxpayers will donate and claim the credit, it’s not yet clear how much the program will cost the government. Kristin Blagg, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, that after an initial “ramp-up period,” the program could generate between $2.7 billion to $6.1 billion annually.

Scholarship groups could begin awarding funds to students in early 2027, but it might take until that fall for them to raise enough money.

“The ones that are serious about doing this are going to be very well prepared,” Schilling said. “I’m hopeful that they will line up a lot of donors who will give in the first quarter of 2027.”

So far, of Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas have said they intend to opt in, while those in New Mexico and Wisconsin have announced that they won’t. But Schilling said he thinks that’s a mistake because donors could just send their money to a scholarship organization in another state.  

“If you’re a blue state governor, why would you want taxpayers in your state sending their money to some other state?” he asked. “I think that’s a political liability.”

Despite Democrats’ longstanding opposition to vouchers for private school and education savings accounts, which can be used for homeschooling, some, like North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, say the program is a chance for more public school students to receive tutoring and afterschool programs.. 

That’s what the Afterschool Alliance emphasized in its submission. The advocacy organization suggested that perhaps some scholarship programs could focus on students who need afterschool activities while others could stick to granting private school scholarships. 

According to a December , conducted for the National Parents Union, more than three-fourths of parents support the tax credit if it’s targeted only to public school students for tutoring, summer learning and afterschool programs. But that figure drops to 40% if the benefit is restricted to private school tuition.

In the spirit of “returning education to the states,” the advocacy group, , wrote that states should be able to design and run the programs in a way that reflects “their unique policy landscapes, community needs and family priorities.”

The organization also wants the Treasury Department to allow states to evaluate schools and providers “to assess whether the programs participating are delivering meaningful, measurable results.” Such data, including average scholarship amounts and the demographics of students served, should be publicly available, the comment said.

Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the conservative , told The 74 that he’s not opposed to public school students receiving scholarships for tutoring or afterschool enrichment, but he doesn’t want the program to become “a backdoor diversion of funds to public schools themselves.”

To religious groups, one chief concern is that states might attempt to require private schools to change their admission policies. In its comment, the Christian Legal Society, an organization of Christian attorneys, referenced litigation in Maine, where religious schools are suing over a requirement that they accept all students, regardless of religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, if they want to participate in a private school choice program.

“It is important that federal regulations prevent governors from yielding to the temptation to play politics with the program by adding additional regulations to distort it,” the group’s comment said. “Such regulations,” they wrote, would lead to “inevitable lawsuits” and limit options for families.

Microschool founders and advocates have additional concerns. A section of the tax credit law says that a K-12 “school” is whatever a state law defines it to be. The problem is that most states don’t legally recognize microschools even though they represent a fast-growing sector within the private school landscape. A published last year showed that most schools participating in state school choice programs enroll around 30 students — the size of many microschools.

“Families turn to programs like ours because their children’s needs cannot be met in traditional settings,” Alexandra Batista. the owner of Steps Learning Center in Orlando, Florida, in a comment to the Treasury Department. “Excluding these types of learning environments due to narrow or outdated definitions would further disadvantage students who already face significant barriers.”

Some organizations, like the left-leaning , want the federal government to adopt an official definition of microschools as a way to better track them and monitor the quality of education they provide. 

But those in the movement are “not excited about that prospect,” said Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center. Some microschools in states with education savings accounts operate like small private schools, while others are more like homeschool co-ops. Some are required to earn accreditation in order to receive state funds; others aren’t.

In his to the Treasury Department, Soifer said that it would be “highly inappropriate and contrary to legislative intent” for officials to adopt an official definition of a microschool when “the industry itself has no consensus.”

Schilling, the lobbyist, said he hopes the Treasury Department addresses the issue in the rules. 

“Microschools feel like they ought to be able to participate in this and we completely agree,” he said. “The intent of the legislation was for a student, in any educational environment, to benefit.”

The promise of public education should not be about competition; rather it should be a commitment to serve every child regardless of family income, ability, ZIP code or race. A robust and fully resourced public school system not only supports all children in fulfilling their potential but also strengthens the foundation of our country by creating an educated populace prepared to participate in a multiracial democracy. 

The current federal administration’s regressive policies could plunge communities deeper into a competitive marketplace where some students win and the majority — particularly students of color and low-income students — lose. 

In Fall 2022, of students attending public schools were students of color. Additionally, during the 2021-2022 school year, attended schools where 75% or more students were of a single race or ethnicity. What this tells us is that our schools remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines.

Private school choice programs by drawing public funds away from public  schools, whether they are structured as traditional vouchers, education savings accounts, or tax credits such as those Congress approved in H.R. 1. These programs increase segregation by concentrating students of color in underfunded public schools while benefiting wealthier, white families. 

from the Partnership for Equity & Education Rights (PEER) and 31 education advocacy groups across 19 states outlines the harms caused by these programs at the state level, including the impact on state budgets, fraud, lack of oversight, and the inequities they perpetuate. The report highlights that voucher programs are costly, ineffective, and do not end up serving the students they promise to serve. 

State voucher programs often blow past their state budgets and drain resources from public schools serving the vast majority of children. For example, in Arizona, universal voucher programs cost the state $517 million more than anticipated in its first year, exceeding the budget by more than 1,000%. Iowa faced a similar issue when their private school voucher program surpassed its anticipated cost by $46.9 million in its second year. 

These miscalculations can divert funds away from public schools and lead to challenging budgetary decisions, including laying off teachers, shutting down schools and cutting additional resources critical to support all students’ growth and development. 

Across the country, increased funding for public schools is the overwhelming choice of parents when considering what is best for their children and communities. A recent poll showed that both Republican and Democratic voters rather than for voucher programs. In 2024, rejected efforts to expand school choice programs. 

As of the 2021-2022 school year, of the country’s roughly 54.6 million K-12 students attended public schools. Reports of a mass exodus from public schools are an oversimplification at best, and misrepresentation at worst. What’s more, these reports are incomplete if they do not acknowledge historical patterns of discrimination and as drivers of that declining enrollment. Voucher programs are not a solution; in fact, they make existing problems worse.

What’s more,  the majority of voucher recipients were already attending private schools. For example, in Florida, 69% of new voucher recipients were already enrolled in private school, and only 13% left their public schools to enter the program. In Arkansas, only 5% of recipients in 2023-2024 transferred from public schools. In Wisconsin, 80% of voucher recipients had never attended public school.

So let’s be clear: These are not programs that are offering opportunities to historically marginalized and underserved students, but rather are tax breaks for families who already could afford to send their children to private schools.  

Voucher programs also raise significant civil rights concerns because private schools receiving the public money are that apply to public schools. That results in fewer protections against policies and practices that may exclude students on the basis of protected classes such as race, gender, ability, sexual orientation and religion. So in reality, the “choice” is not available for everyone. 

Illinois has taken steps to show us a better way: Lawmakers allowed the state’s tax credit program to expire, recognizing that diverting money to private schools undermined public schools. Yet, even Illinois, where lawmakers adopted a model designed to direct resources where they are needed most, is still far behind fully funding its . 

Across the country, families must call on state lawmakers to opt out of the nationwide voucher program, given the weak results in several states. Our priority must be protecting both state and federal education dollars and resisting privatization of our public schools.

The correlation between public education and democracy is inextricable. As a country we must all ask ourselves: Do we believe every child, not just our own, deserves a high-quality education regardless of Zip code, gender, race, and socioeconomic status? Do we want our youth to be prepared with critical thinking skills and historically accurate knowledge to fully participate in our communities and democratic institutions? 

If the answer is yes and we are willing to fight for a better future for our youth and our country, now is the time to resist regression in our local, state and federal education policies and to start demanding robust reinvestment into public education. The stakes are high, and our democracy depends on it. 

“Private school gives us peace of mind,” Rolando Zamora, a father of two, wrote to her. 

With a family of six living on one income, Chris Meija said the scholarship “certainly helped ease some of the financial burden.”

Organizations like the BASIC Fund, many of which are located in blue states, have operated out of the spotlight, quietly raising money from private donors to support kids from lower-income families. But now, with recent passage of the first-ever for private school choice, part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,”  they could soon be thrust into a public debate over the next phase of the school choice movement.

“We’ve been much more focused on just trying to help families and don’t want to get into the political fray, necessarily,” Elginsmith said.  This fall, the BASIC Fund will help 3,100 students to attend 260 private schools. But with the federal tax credit coming in 2027, she can’t resist thinking about reaching more of the 300 to 500 applicants each year who don’t receive funding, she said. “We’re not against public schools; we just think that they aren’t the best thing for everybody.”

Ever since Trump gathered with Republicans on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4 to sign the bill, commentators have focused on one central question: What will blue states do?  The Treasury Department still has to write rules for the program, but overall, the law allows taxpayers to get a dollar-for-dollar credit, up to $1,700, if they donate to a scholarship granting organization, like the BASIC Fund. Because the legislation lets states choose whether to participate, many assume that those under Democratic control will remain firmly opposed to anything that looks like a voucher. But Colyn Ritter, a senior research associate at EdChoice, an advocacy organization, said he “wouldn’t argue with anyone” who thinks states with existing scholarship programs would be in the best position to opt in. 

BASIC is among several groups affiliated with the Children’s Scholarship Fund in New York, which annually helps about 7,000 students from low-income families across New York City attend private school. The nonprofit has partners that grant scholarships in Oregon, Massachusetts and New Jersey, to name a few other blue states. 

“Those folks presumably have relationships with some state policymakers, which we think could be helpful,” said John Schilling, a consultant and adviser to the conservative American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group. He worked to keep the tax credit in the Republicans’ reconciliation bill, but is now shifting his attention to the states. Listing other Democratic strongholds, like Massachusetts and Illinois, he said, “These are places where parents desperately need some additional options.”

Supporters of the tax credit describe it as “” for education and argue it’s misleading to call it a voucher because the scholarships are funded by private donations — not federal funds directly. Still, tax experts predict the could range anywhere from $8 billion to more than $100 billion per year, and opponents hope to convince political leaders and the public that the program is a bad idea. 

“Whether you call it a voucher or a scholarship program … this is what’s going to happen,” former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warned last month on a media call. “Public education dollars will be siphoned off to pay for vouchers for private schools that don’t have to accept all students. If students in many of these private schools struggle, they’re going to be sent back to these underfunded public schools.”

Others argue that private schools participating in choice programs aren’t subject to the same accountability and anti-discrimination requirements as public schools. 

“There are no testing requirements, no standards, no teacher certification mandates or any other mechanisms to ensure that participating private schools would provide an adequate education to students,” said Patrick Cremin, a staff attorney for the Education Law Center, which is opposed to the program. 

He doesn’t want blue states to be tempted by the fact that the federal program would also allow groups like BASIC to create scholarships for students in public schools. Families could put the money toward tutoring, books, therapies and technology — to name a few uses. Despite their “constitutional obligation to fund public schools,” there’s a risk, Cremin said, that states would shortchange districts if they expect taxpayers’ donations to cover some expenses.

Powerful political forces’

Because the tax credit doesn’t take effect for another year and a half, the debate over opting in could surface in the 38 states where voters will elect governors this year and next. 

For now, choice advocates in California, where voters are expected to elect another Democrat when term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom leaves office, aren’t hopeful about their prospects. Lizette Vallas, who runs a in Los Angeles, blamed the . 

“The California Teachers Association is one of the most powerful political forces in the state. Any legislation or opt-in mechanism that diverts funding — even indirectly — from public schools to private or nontraditional models is almost always met with unified resistance,” she said. “While federal policy is nudging open the door for school choice, California continues to reinforce the frame around its own tightly held model.”

David Goldberg, the association’s president, “a distraction.”&�Բ�����;

In other states, like and , the race for governor is , meaning the federal tax credit has the potential to become a central campaign issue, said Joshua Cowen, a Michigan State University professor and Democrat who is also running for Congress.

The bill that included the tax credit is already causing budget challenges for state leaders, he said. Michigan, for one, is facing in extra costs in 2026 because the federal package cut tax rates and shifted some nutrition and health care spending to states.. 

As a Democrat, Cowen said his party needs a platform that focuses on prioritizing support for public schools, but he said even governors who have been dead set against vouchers may have to consider how the tax credit could support programs like afterschool tutoring. 

“States like mine are going to be desperate for new sources of revenue,” he said. “I could certainly see governors’ offices taking a look at this program — not because they necessarily love it —  but because you’ve got revenue problems caused by the same exact bill that’s authorizing this.”&�Բ�����;

‘Families who are pinched the most’

Observers speculate that Pennsylvania could be the first blue state to opt in. came close to supporting an education savings account bill in 2023, and the state already offers two tax credit programs for corporations that donate to scholarships. 

A from the conservative Commonwealth Foundation showed that only about half of the students who applied for aid in Pennsylvania during the 2022-23 school year received it. Those figures, school choice advocates say, are further evidence that is soaring. 

Illinois, another Democrat-led state, had a tax credit scholarship program, serving about 15,000 students, until lawmakers allowed it to . Nonprofits and Republican lawmakers are now urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to participate in the federal program. 

“Families and kids have borne the brunt of the program ending with many being unable to continue at their school or having to give up on the hope of attending their dream school,” said Bobby Sylvester, vice president of the Urban Center, a think tank. The tax credit “will cost Illinois nothing, but would make all the difference to the families who lost their scholarships.”

While not as as Illinois, Colorado is the home state of ACE, another network of scholarship granting organizations. About $400,000 of the more than $11 million it awards in scholarships each year in the state goes to Mullen High School in Denver. The Christian Brothers, a Catholic congregation providing education to the poor, originally founded the school in the 1930s as an orphanage. Today, the 800-student Catholic school serves “some very rich kids and some super poor kids,” said Raul Cardenas Jr., president and CEO.

The financial support from ACE, he said, has been especially helpful to middle-income families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to fit private school in their budget. Two years ago, when he reduced scholarship awards for families in that income bracket by just $1,000, several left the school. This coming school year, leaders, he said “were very intentional about addressing that gap,” and if Colorado opts into the program, he would further expand financial assistance to those families.

“It’s always middle income families who are pinched the most,” he said. “I see this as a way to really help them.”

Voters in the Centennial State have resisted private school choice. Colorado is one of where the issue failed at the ballot box last year. A constitutional amendment would have created a right to the full array of options, including private schools and “future innovations in education.” The vote was extremely close, 50% to 49%. In two previous state elections, voters more decisively rejected vouchers, by a 2-1 margin in and with 60% of the vote in . 

Colorado might only opt into the federal program if the Treasury Department allows states the flexibility to “carefully regulate” scholarship granting organizations, said Kevin Welner,  an education researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Gov. Jared Polis, or his successor in 2026, could find the tax credit acceptable if “students in public schools receive the same level of benefits” as those in private schools, he said. 

But Schilling, with American Federation for Children, would have a problem with states that approve organizations providing financial support to public school kids, but not those that supplement tuition at private schools.

“Blue state governors who want to remain in the good graces of the teachers’ unions may say ‘OK, I’ll opt in but we only want to serve students through public schools,’ ” he said. Regardless of which students the nonprofits want to serve, states, he said, “shouldn’t be picking and choosing.”&�Բ�����;

In the fall of 2016, as her daughter struggled through a disastrous first two weeks in middle school, Emily Harding-Morick searched for a way out.

In class, students sat in desks far apart from one another, with barely a moment to chat between periods. During breaks, monitors herded them through the halls with no time to find a bathroom.

“She was just so unhappy,” the mother recalled.

That’s when Harding-Morick called Kenneth Danford.

The veteran educator wasted no time, telling her 13-year-old, “You know, yesterday could be your last day of school.”

They were stunned, but Danford persisted: “You don’t have to go back.”

That began a journey that has become increasingly routine in this region: Harding-Morick disenrolled her daughter from middle school and she joined North Star Teens. Guided by Danford, North Star’s co-founder, she spent a year there studying, relaxing and socializing with a small group of like-minded teenagers. Her mother joined its board, eventually becoming its chair.

At its most basic, North Star is a small, private homeschooling collective for middle- and high-schoolers who know they don’t want to go to school anymore, but aren’t sure what comes next.

As more families question the value of school — and as states and the federal government increasingly offer taxpayer dollars for other options — models like North Star’s could take root beyond western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. As it nears three decades in operation, Danford is moving to replicate it.

For 29 years, the private, non-profit center — don’t call it a school — has been a refuge for kids who chafe at the stress, loneliness or bullying of school. They spend a few months or a few years here, catching their breath as they prepare for life after graduation.

With an enrollment of 65, it offers rigorous, one-on-one tutoring; small, personalized classes in history, math, writing and the arts, and extracurriculars like weekly hiking club excursions. This year, young people designed and taught three courses on Dungeons & Dragons.

Or “members,” as they’re called, can simply show up and read a book, sit with friends, take the public bus into nearby Amherst or curl up on the couch with a bowl of ramen. All that’s required is a weekly check-in with an advisor and regular conferences with families.

But that freedom comes with a healthy dose of self-examination. Danford regularly reminds members, “You’re accountable to yourself. Is this the life you want?”

With a tuition scale that slides from $10,000 annually down to whatever a family can afford, North Star has been a quiet presence in the region since its founding in 1996. It has moved three times since then, but in 2015 landed in a faded two-story structure on State Highway 116 that once housed a used furniture store and a Subway sandwich shop. 

North Star functions like a gym, social club or even a religious institution: Attendance is encouraged but optional. Members can take classes or not. There are no grades, no transcripts or tests, no roll call and no diploma. 

Most who seek refuge here have good reason: They’ve been bullied or they’re on the autism spectrum and seeking a smaller, calmer venue. Or they’re LGBTQ and simply don’t feel comfortable at school.

“Some of them are just your non-conformist, skateboarder-poet-musician kids who think, ‘School?’ They roll their eyes,” said Danford. “We tend not to get your football player, cheerleader, sports team kids who want to be popular in school. But we get all the kids they pick on.”

Marley Bernstein, 16, faced years of bullying at a school she said was ill-equipped to stop it. So she stopped going, missing 120 days last year and 64 this year.

She arrived at North Star in late May, filing paperwork to pursue a GED. 

“I feel better being here,” she said one recent morning in the large common room. “It’s nice to just sit. You can walk around, you can kind of do whatever you want and not have to look over your shoulder every two minutes.”

Nearby, friends Asha Morbyrne and Tasha Harris chatted. Tasha confided that “a lot of people here are traumatized,” to which her friend replied, “A lot of people. Middle school is a violent place.”&�Բ�����;

Both 13, they confided that they’re here mostly to spend time together, occupying their days slurping ramen and rough-housing in the dance studio upstairs.

“This is, like, the only place I have a functioning friend group,” said Asha. 

“Same!” said Tasha.

But beneath the apparent slacking, Danford said, is often a quiet purpose. Last fall, Asha wrote a short play that she recently produced at a local theater, while Tasha learned to swim and is a regular on Thursday hikes.

Others arrive seemingly ready for anything. Joshua Wachtel began teaching at North Star in 2010, and last year brought along his stepson Lysander Woodard, who wanted an alternative to sixth grade.

The 12-year-old is trying a bit of everything. He joined a recent service learning trip to Washington, D.C., and is getting tutoring via Khan Academy. He took all three D&D classes, as well as one on the Star Wars canon taught by an adult.

“The freedom is nice,” Lysander said.

Danford urges supporters and skeptics alike to look past the unusual structure and “keep your eyes on the prize.” It isn’t regular attendance or even being a member of the community, he said. “The prize is independent control of your life.”

Flipping the unschooling paradigm

A powerfully built Gen Xer from Ohio, Danford got straight As in high school in Shaker Heights, a prosperous Cleveland suburb. He cut his teeth teaching social studies in public middle schools in the Washington, D.C., area and in Amherst, but soon grew weary of micromanagement from administrators. 

He left to earn his master’s degree, and was considering leaving education altogether when he read Grace Llewelyn’s seminal 1991 guide . Subtitled “How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education,” it changed his thinking about student agency, offering a template for young people searching for a different kind of education outside of school, a strategy often called “.”&�Բ�����;

Most unschoolers were younger, returning to school by ninth grade. But to Danford, high school was where kids could benefit most from its freedom as they separate from parents and find themselves as individuals.

He essentially flipped the paradigm: “If you made it through elementary school, why don’t you quit while you’re ahead? Make it to sixth grade and then quit. Unschool the rest of the way.”

It helps that the state of Massachusetts takes a hands-off approach to homeschoolers and largely stops supervising them once they’re 16.

“You don’t like school?” he tells prospective members, “Don’t go back. Don’t ever go back in the building. Send someone in to get your books. I help families write a homeschooling plan. Do it tonight, this week.”

‘I just could not stop crying.’

For Trixie Lawless, enrolling in North Star was a no-brainer. Her mother had worked there as a teacher and knew its benefits. But she had to persuade her father.

By sophomore year, she’d spent a lot of time skipping classes at her high school in Amherst. “I enjoyed my day,” she said, reading, writing short stories, taking in movies or museums.

“I was like, ‘I’m homeschooling right now. If I just had a math tutor, I would be fine.’”

But skipping all those classes meant pointless makeup work and the black mark of unexcused absences. While it was mostly worth it, the prospect of another year in school eventually took a toll.

While visiting family last summer in Connecticut, she recalled, “I just could not stop crying.” Even for Trixie, this was a shock. She can usually hide her emotions, “even when I’m feeling really horrible. So when it got to that breaking point, where it was like, ‘I can’t even keep up with myself anymore,’ that was the first time I’d ever really let it through.”

Her father took notice. Trixie enrolled in the fall. 

Having time to herself in a community of people who all want to be here, she said, is “so much nicer. It definitely wouldn’t be for everyone, but it has given me the space I knew I needed to feel better.”

She’s now studying for the GED with plans to start classes at Greenfield Community College in the fall. After a year at North Star, she’s beginning to appreciate how different members experience the center. 

“It’s about how you fill the space — a lot of people here do that by playing video games and organizing D&D campaigns.” She does it by oversubscribing to English and writing classes. “It’s a place for people who know what works for them.”

Second-generation members

By now, the center has been around long enough that it’s beginning to serve the children of its original members. One even teaches there: Aaron Damon-Rush arrived at North Star in 2011, when he was just 11, and stayed for seven years. He went on to attend nearby Hampshire College and returned in 2022 as alumni coordinator. Now 25, he teaches courses in film, game design and other disciplines.

At North Star, he took classes in psychology and criminal justice, learning about the morality of the death penalty and victims’ rights when he was just 12. “That was a huge, mind-blowing experience for me,” he said.

In lieu of finals and graduation, each member sits for a meeting with their parents and a handful of staffers where they review the year. They often find it’s their best year of schooling, even though they’re technically not in school. Parents speak tearfully of their kids opening up about classes for the first time, Danford said.

“It is all fantastic, even the hard cases,” he said.

As North Star nears its 30th anniversary, Danford, who’s 59, is nearly two-thirds of the way through what he calls a 45-year plan: In the first 15 years, he built it; in the second, he worked to make it run increasingly without him. Now he’s planning to step away so he can write, speak and consult with other educators who want to create something similar. 

A network of centers, loosely affiliated with North Star, already boasts about a dozen locations worldwide. And Danford continues to offer the same message to weary young people who show up at his door.

“Just take the year, breathe, wonder what you should be doing,” he said. “Meanwhile we’re gonna unlock the door and give you a couch — and we’ll be nice to you. Turns out that’s really healthy and responsible.”&�Բ�����;

While most mainstream educators would say letting young people “do nothing” for a year is out of the question, he sees it differently: In the unschooling world, he said, “there’s no such thing as ‘doing nothing.’ ”

Gov. Mark Gordon lauded a controversial universal school voucher bill Tuesday morning before signing it into law hours later.

 will represent a significant expansion of school choice in the state, offering families $7,000 per child annually  for K-12 non-public-school costs like tuition or tutoring. The scholarship will also offer money for pre-K costs, but only to income-qualified families who are at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.

The legislation has sparked a deluge of constituent feedback, according to lawmakers, both from supporters of school choice and from critics who call the measure an unconstitutional bill that will erode the quality of public education in the state. 

Gordon had himself  last year, citing constitutional concerns. However, he lauded this version as a “remarkable achievement for Wyoming.”&�Բ�����;

“I’m very excited that we’re not only going to be able to expand K-12 choices to be accompanied by careful oversight and … ensure that all families have access to the best educational options,” Gordon said, “but as we pursue these opportunities, I want to make sure that we uphold the strength of Wyoming’s public schools.”&�Բ�����;

Bill journey

The law will transform and expand an existing state education savings account program that gives public money to income-qualified families to help them pay for pre-K programs, homeschooling costs or private school tuition. The education savings account program was passed last year and began accepting applicants in January. 

House Bill 199 sponsor Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, called the 2024 ESA program much too narrow. His new bill proposed to offer up to $7,000 per student regardless of a family’s economic needs. Along with making the program universal, in its original form, the bill dropped: the preschool component, a requirement that participating students take statewide assessments or similar nationwide tests and a requirement that providers be certified by the Department of Education. 

The bill has been transformed substantially as it travelled through the Legislature; some 26 amendments were brought, including 11 that passed. Along with changing the name from the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act, the final version reinstated the assessment requirements, the provider certification and the inclusion of pre-K, though families have to show income need to qualify for that portion. 

It spurred much debate as it traveled through the body, triggering discussion on the state of public education in Wyoming, the constitutionality of the program and the importance of early childhood education. Many lawmakers asked what the rush is, given that Wyoming’s existing ESA program is only two months old.

Those who say the new law is unconstitutional cite Article 7, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution, which reads: “Nor shall any portion of any public school fund ever be used to support or assist any private school, or any school, academy, seminary, college or other institution of learning controlled by any church or sectarian organization or religious denomination whatsoever.”

When Gordon partially vetoed the education savings account bill last year, he pointed specifically to constitutional concerns when he narrowed eligibility to families at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. That referenced the constitutional language that prohibits the state from giving money to individuals “except for the necessary support of the poor.”

On Tuesday, he said he’s taken the last year to consider the issue, “and I realize that that will be sort of handled by our courts” if the question is asked. “In the meantime, I think it’s important to remember that we have all been working to try to expand school choice, and this gives that opportunity for parents.”

This comes less than a week after a judge ruled in favor of the Wyoming Education Association and eight school districts in a court case that’s anticipated to have major implications for the state. Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher the state’s public schools and ordered the state to fix that.

Praise and worry 

House Bill 199 drew loads of attention — both from local advocacy groups vowing to fight it and from out-of-state groups . President Donald Trump even weighed in when he gave kudos to Senate President Bo Biteman for helping to advance the legislation.

“This would be an incredible Victory for Wyoming students and families,” Trump wrote on Truth Social while the measure was still awaiting Senate votes. “Every Member of the Wyoming Senate should vote for HB 199. I will be watching!”

In Wyoming, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus celebrated the signing of the bill, crediting Rep. Andrew for its success. “Finally, we can say that in Wyoming, we support students, not systems,” a Wyoming Freedom Caucus Facebook post read. 

Many in the detractor camp, meanwhile, decried Gordon’s action. 

“Particularly in light of the extraordinary opposition to the voucher program by the majority of Wyoming’s residents, we are disappointed by Gov. Gordon’s decision to sign HB199 into law,” the Wyoming Education Association said in a statement. The association also questioned the decision’s wisdom following so closely on the heels of the strongly worded ruling. 

“The district court’s ruling from only days ago confirmed that the state is not funding public education to the level as it is required, and the choice to take taxpayer dollars to support a voucher program is a curiously poor decision,” the WEA said. 

The organization warned that similar laws in other states have proven these types of programs to be vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse and ineffective in improving student performance.

“Unconstitutional universal voucher programs serve as a taxpayer-funded welfare handout to wealthy families whose communities have access to such schools and whose students already attend private schools,” the WEA said. 

During his press conference Tuesday, Gordon characterized the ESA bill passed last year as a generic program. 

“I know it’s a big national agenda item,” he said of school choice. “But it’s important to remember that this is Wyoming’s way of doing it. This was created and crafted by people here in Wyoming, not somebody from out of state … and it really meets the needs specifically of Wyoming.”

Reporter Maggie Mullen contributed to this article.

In an effort to help Idahoans follow major bills, resolutions and memorials through the legislative process, the Idaho Capital Sun will produce a “legislative notebook” at the end of each week to gather information in one place that concerns major happenings in the Legislature and other news relating to state government. To receive the full extent of our reporting in your inbox each day, sign up for our free email newsletter, The Sunrise, on our website at

Here is our quick rundown of the major happenings during the eighth week of the Idaho Legislature’s 2025 session.

Idaho governor signs House Bill 93

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Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 93 – which may be one of the most contentious bills considered during the 2025 legislative session – into law on Thursday.

After several years of failed attempts from conservative legislators, it will allow state taxpayer dollars to fund private, religious and home schooling expenses like tuition, tutoring and other costs.

The bill provides a refundable tax credit up to $5,000 for a parent of homeschooled or private school students to pay for expenses including tuition and fees, tutoring, textbook costs, curriculum and transportation. The refundable tax credit is increased to $7,500 for special needs students.

“Idaho can have it all – strong public schools AND education freedom. Providing high-quality education for Idaho students will always be our top priority,” Little said in a press release about signing the bill.

Critics, including Idaho’s Democratic legislators, some Republican legislators and many public school teachers and administrators, say the bill will take away $50 million of public taxpayer dollars from the state’s general fund that could have supported public schools, transportation needs and other important public services.

In a statement by the entire Democratic legislative caucus, the legislators said the governor betrayed promises he made during his Jan. 6 State of the State address that any bill that would use state funds to support private education would “meet standards of fairness, accountability, responsibility, and transparency.”

“HB93 has none of these, but, like so many Republicans, he bowed to out-of-state billionaires instead of prioritizing the needs of real Idahoans,” the Democratic caucus said. “The governor has sacrificed his legacy as a pro-public schools governor and a fiscal conservative by signing a bill that siphons public dollars to subsidize private school tuition for the wealthy. The people of Idaho can now expect what has happened in other voucher states: starved public schools, higher property taxes as local districts will be forced to run bonds and levies, and exploding state budgets that threaten infrastructure and public safety.”

But Little, in the press release, defended his record of supporting increased public education funding every year he has been governor.

“I am proud that we have put close to $17 billion into our K-12 public school system since I took office and increased public school funding by close to 60 percent in just a few years,” he said. “Our investments in education initiatives have increased 80 percent overall since my first year in office. In addition, Idaho ranks first in the nation for our return on investment in public schools.”

Little signs bill that would create mandatory minimum fine for misdemeanor marijuana possession

Little also signed , which would create a $300 minimum fine for adults convicted of possessing three ounces or less of marijuana.

Co-sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa; Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth; and nine other Republican legislators, including House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, it was the sixth bill to become law during the 2025 legislative session.

Supporters of the law, including Skaug, said the law is a way to be tough on marijuana and differentiate Idaho from its surrounding states of Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada and Utah, which have all legalized cannabis use by adults in various forms.

The new law will go into effect on July 1.

Legislation of interest during the eighth week of the 2025 session

• : Sponsored by Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, and Rep. Robert Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend, the bill would prohibit local governments, health districts and school districts from mandating that an individual must wear a mask or face covering to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. The bill was delivered to the governor on Friday. The Idaho Constitution says the governor has five days – not counting Sundays – after the bill has been presented to him to act on legislation. Little then has three options: to sign it into law, to allow the law to go into effect without his signature or to veto the bill.
• : Co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, the bill would repeal age-based child-to-staff ratios for child care facilities in Idaho law. The Idaho House passed the bill on a 54-15 vote Thursday. It now heads to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee for consideration.
• and : The bills sponsored by Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, and Senate Pro Tem Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, respectively, would combine two immigration-related bills proposed this legislative session. House Bill 83 would allow law enforcement to record a person’s documentation status only if they are already detained or under investigation for a crime. If an individual involved in a crime is found to be living in Idaho without legal authorization, they would face a misdemeanor charge for “illegal entry.” A second offense would result in a felony charge, and a conviction would lead to deportation. Senate Bill 1039 would ban immigration sanctuaries in Idaho, criminalize the presence of “dangerous illegal aliens,” and prohibit their transportation into the state. It would also require law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. House Bill 83 was sent to the Senate’s amending order, where the bills may be combined in the coming days of the session.
• : Sponsored by Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, the bill would clarify and add guidance to Idaho coroners’ roles in death investigations. The Idaho Senate passed the bill on a 25-10 vote Wednesday. It may be taken up by the House Local Government Committee in the coming days of the session.
• : Sponsored by Sen. Ben Adams, R-Nampa, the bill would subsidize crisis pregnancy centers in Idaho through a grant program with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, providing more than $1 million in taxpayer funds to qualified centers, with centers receiving a minimum grant of $25,000. The Senate State Affairs Committee voted against advancing the bill on Friday, which may have killed it for the session.
• : Sponsored by Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, the bill would require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to seek federal approval to exclude candy and soda from foods eligible for coverage by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps). The Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee, on an 8-7 vote Tuesday, sent the bill to the House floor with a recommendation that it pass. It is on the House’s third reading calendar and may be taken up in the coming days of the session.
• : Co-sponsored by Reps. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, and Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, the bill would raise the salary for each judicial position in Idaho by $17,000. The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration voted to advance the bill to the full House with a recommendation that it pass. It may be taken up in the coming days of the session.
• : Co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Ehardt and Marco Erickson, both R-Idaho Falls, the bill would protect the identity of sources who provide journalists with confidential information or documents. The House voted unanimously to pass the bill on Tuesday. It now heads to the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee for consideration.

What to expect next week

Senate State Affairs Committee
: Sponsored by Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, the bill would create the “Wildfire Standard of Care Act,” which would establish a standard of care through electric utility wildfire mitigation plans, subject to approval by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for regulated utilities. It would also establish that an electric corporation that substantially complies with a wildfire mitigation plan could not be “found liable in any civil action to recover damages or impose liability, including for death of or injury” to people or property. The bill is scheduled for a public hearing before the committee on Monday.

Senate Education Committee
: Sponsored by Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, the resolution would affirm the Idaho Legislature’s support for inclusion of PragerU Kids’ supplemental education resources in Idaho public schools. “This resolution recognizes their value in fostering patriotism, personal responsibility, and a strong appreciation for America’s founding principles while commending the Department of Education for its commitment to educational excellence and expanding innovative learning opportunities,” the resolution’s statement of purpose says. The resolution is scheduled for a public hearing before the committee on Monday.

House Health and Welfare Committee
: Sponsored by Rep. Dori Healey, R-Boise, the bill would transfer decision-making authority about vaccination requirements for children attending day cares and schools from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to the Idaho Legislature. The bill is scheduled for a public hearing before the committee on Monday.

How to follow the Idaho Legislature and Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s work during the session

Here are a few tools we use to track the Legislature’s business and how to let your voice be heard in the issues that matter most to you.

How to find your legislators: To determine which legislative district you live in, and to find contact information for your legislators within that district, go to the and put in your home address and ZIP code. Once you’ve entered that information, the three legislators – two House members and one senator – who represent your district will appear, and you can click on their headshots to find their email address and phone number.

How to find committee agendas: Go to the Idaho Legislature’s website, , and click on the “” link and the “” link on the right side of the website.

How to watch the legislative action in committees and on the House and Senate floors: Idaho Public Television works in conjunction with the Legislative Services Office and the Idaho Department of Administration through a program called “Idaho in Session” to provide live streaming for all legislative committees and for the House and Senate floors. To watch the action, go to and select the stream you’d like to watch.

How to testify remotely at public hearings before a committee: To sign up to testify remotely for a specific committee, navigate to that committee’s webpage, and click on the “testimony registration (remote and in person)” tab at the top.

How to find state budget documents: Go to Legislative Services Office Budget and Policy Analysis Division’s website.

How to track which bills have made it to Gov. Little’s desk and any action he took on them (including vetoes): Go to the governor’s website . You can scroll down to the bottom of the site and enter your email address to get alerts sent straight to your inbox when the page has been updated.

Reporting from Idaho Capital Sun journalists Clark Corbin, Mia Maldonado and Kyle Pfannenstiel contributed to this legislative notebook.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.

Tennessee House and Senate education committees passed the governor’s private-school voucher program Tuesday, speeding the $450 million first-year expense to final votes before week’s end.

Senators voted 8-1 to send the measure to the finance committee to be considered Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican carrying the bill for Gov. Bill Lee, told lawmakers the plan will “empower families to do something for their kid, fulfilling needs we’re not meeting with this public school system that we run together with our local folks.”

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Johnson claimed a mandate to pass the measure from President Donald Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform earlier that he supports Tennessee lawmakers’ efforts to adopt “school choice.”

“It is our goal to bring education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before,” Trump said in his post.

Lee’s plan, which is zooming toward final votes in a special session this week, calls for providing more than $7,000 each to 20,000 students statewide and then expanding by about 5,000 annually. Half of those students in the first year could come from families with incomes at 300% of the federal poverty level, an estimated $175,000 for a family of four, while the rest would have no income limit. No maximum income would be placed on the program after the first year.

A financial analysis by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee determined K-12 schools will lose $45 million and that only $3.3 million would go toward 12 school districts most likely to lose students.

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari of Memphis was the lone vote against the bill as she urged the committee to “exercise a bit more caution.” Akbari reminded senators that students participating in the state’s education savings account program, which provides vouchers to enroll in private schools in Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby counties, are performing worse academically than their peers.

In contrast, Republican Sen. Adam Lowe of Calhoun said standardized tests shouldn’t be the deciding factor in passing the bill. Lowe also told Hawkins County Schools Director Matt Hixson he shouldn’t be worried about talk that some local leaders in upper East Tennessee believe they have to support the voucher bill or the legislature could refuse to approve $420 million for Hurricane Helene disaster relief.

The House panel endorsed the plan on a 17-7 vote after Republican lawmakers used a procedural move to bypass debate on the bill. Rep. Jake McCalmon of Williamson County called for an immediate vote following public testimony, backed by Rep. William Slater of Sumner County. The move kept opponents from questioning the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader William Lamberth.

Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville called the move “ridiculous” afterward because of the impact the bill could have on public schools and the state’s budget.

In addition to complaining that the state will be running two school systems and likely hitting financial problems, Johnson challenged Lamberth’s assertion that the bill will make public schools “whole” when they lose students to the private-school voucher program.

Lamberth, though, said public schools would not lose “one red cent” as a result of the program.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

This argument misses a critical point: These policies provide families with new opportunities while taking no existing options away.

The commentary by Lauren Morando Rhim at the Center for Learning Equity expresses concerns that private schools are not bound by the same rules, regulations, and processes as public schools. But that’s precisely the point of alternatives. As Rhim herself noted in a previous , “The system can be very large and rigid,” often leaving students with disabilities marginalized by a one-size-fits-all approach. 

I’m hard pressed to find more compelling reasons to support giving families more options.

Public schools work well for many students with disabilities. But for families seeking something different, what’s the harm in allowing them to use their funds to choose a private alternative they believe will better serve their child? 

Public schools are governed by laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which was enacted at a time when with disabilities were denied access to public schools. However, IDEA’s aspirational goals have not always translated into effective implementation across the nation’s 13,000-plus school districts. Many families face endless battles for evaluations, services, and compliance. For every success story, there are countless examples of parents left frustrated by the system.

It’s tedious that I must point this out, because there are just as many stories of parents satisfied with what their public school offers their child. But the world doesn’t run on generalities—it runs on the lived experiences of individuals. Some schools do better than others, and some adults do better than others. 

Florida passed the first statewide voucher program in 1999 specifically for students with disabilities. Today, over 90,000 students in Florida benefit from these programs, which cover tuition, therapies, tutoring, and other expenses.

Research supports their effectiveness. A from Boston University and the University of Arkansas found 93% satisfaction rates among families participating in Florida’s Gardiner Scholarship Program, an education savings account specifically for students with disabilities, compared to 85% satisfaction among families who are not participating. (The program is now part of the state’s newer Family Empowerment Scholarships for Students with Unique Abilities program.)

Participating parents reported significantly higher satisfaction rates in terms of the services and accommodations their private school provided compared to parents in public schools. These families valued the ability to choose schools and services that met their children’s specific needs—freedom that is often unavailable in public systems.

Unlike public schools, private school programs don’t necessarily have public meeting requirements, standardized test score reporting and federal disability law protections. Yet parents in these programs overwhelmingly report higher satisfaction. Why? These programs give families a right they don’t have elsewhere: the ability to control their educational funds and choose what works best for their child. 

One parent in the Florida study put it best, saying the option “opened up a whole avenue of feeling like I didn’t have to have him stay in a setting that I felt like he wasn’t going to be successful in. And without it, I don’t think he’d be where he is today.”

I won’t pretend every program is perfect. Bureaucratic red tape can make them harder to navigate, and experiences vary. But expanding options that outperform the status quo in parent satisfaction does not harm families of students with disabilities – it helps them. 

I have a son with autism. I’m motivated to find him a school where he’s welcomed, supported, understood, and loved. I want him to grow academically, socially, and cognitively. I hope he’ll make friends and be able to share highlights of his day. These basic human needs are obvious to any parent, yet they’re rarely mentioned in debates about regulations and government processes. 

With over 55 million schoolchildren in the United States, why dismiss choice and alternatives because they are not bound by a federal regulatory apparatus? That is often the very reason parents seek alternatives. Expanding options empowers families to find solutions that work for them—solutions that no one can dictate better than a parent.

Adam Peshek is senior director and senior fellow of Stand Together Trust.

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to The 74.

Some of Michigan Democrats’ long-sought reforms could come to fruition by the end of the year.

The party wants to use its lame duck session to by making financial audits and individual expenditures available to the public. Also on the table is a bill that would to the schools they run.

– the state was among the first in the nation to pass laws allowing them. They were pitched as a tool of innovation in public education and a means to give parents more school options. .

Michigan’s charter schools, which are also known as public school academies, faced legal challenges early on from opponents who contended that charters weren’t public schools and shouldn’t receive public funding.

Charters must follow state and federal education law.

Charter schools often hire for-profit education management organizations, or EMOs, to run the entire operations of a school, or handle specific tasks like finance or human resources.

The private EMOs are not subject to the same public information laws as traditional public schools. Unlike traditional public schools, for instance, charter schools often aggregate their expenditures into a single line item for “purchased services,” which can make it difficult to track their spending.

Democrats have been skeptical of for-profit EMOs, saying they pocket tax dollars instead of investing the funds in classrooms. Republicans have opposed efforts to increase transparency in charters’ operations, however, arguing it could hinder the schools’ growth.

The history of charter schools in Michigan is long and complex. Here is a timeline of some major events:

This story was originally published at Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Mississippians who are dead set on enacting private school vouchers could do like their counterparts in Kentucky and attempt to change the state constitution to allow public funds to be spent on private schools.

The courts have ruled in Kentucky that the state constitution prevents private schools from receiving public funds, commonly known as vouchers. In response to that court ruling, an issue was placed on the ballot to change the Kentucky Constitution and allow private schools to receive public funds.

But voters threw a monkey wrench into the voucher supporters’ plans to bypass the courts. The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated this month, with 65% of Kentuckians voting against the proposal.

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Kentucky, generally speaking, is at least as conservative or more conservative than Mississippi. In unofficial returns, 65% of Kentuckians voted for Republican Donald Trump on Nov. 5 compared to 62% of Mississippians.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, there has been a hue and cry to enact a widespread voucher program.

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has voiced support for vouchers, though he has conceded he does not believe there are the votes to get such a proposal through the House Republican caucus that claims a two-thirds supermajority.

And, like in Kentucky, there is the question of whether a voucher proposal could withstand legal muster under a plain reading of the Mississippi Constitution.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, the state constitution appears to explicitly prohibit the spending of public funds on private schools. The Mississippi Constitution states that public funds should not be spent on a school that “is not conducted as a free school.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court has never rendered a specific ruling on the issue. The Legislature did provide $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to private schools. That expenditure was challenged and appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. But in a ruling earlier this year, the state’s high court did not directly address the issue of public funds being spent on private schools. It instead ruled that the group challenging the expenditure did not have standing to file the lawsuit.

In addition, a majority of the court ruled that the case was not directly applicable to the Mississippi Constitution’s language since the money directed to private schools was not state funds but one-time federal funds earmarked for COVID-19 relief efforts.

To clear up the issue in Mississippi, those supporting vouchers could do like their counterparts did in Kentucky and try to change the constitution.

Since Mississippi’s ballot initiative process was struck down in an unrelated Supreme Court ruling, the only way to change the state constitution is to pass a proposal by a two-thirds majority of the Mississippi House and Senate and then by a majority of the those voting in a November general election.

Those touting public funds for private schools point to a poll commissioned by House Speaker White that shows 72% support for “policies that enable parents to take a more active role in deciding the best path for their children’s education.”&�Բ�����;But what does that actually mean? Many have critiqued the phrasing of the question, wondering why the pollster did not ask specifically about spending public funds on private schools.

Regardless, Mississippi voucher supporters have made no attempt to change the constitution. Instead, they argue that for some vague reason the language in the Mississippi Constitution should be ignored.

Nationwide efforts to put vouchers before the voters have not been too successful. In addition to voters in Kentucky rejecting vouchers, so did voters in ruby-red Nebraska and true-blue Colorado in this year’s election.

With those election setbacks, voucher supporters in Mississippi might believe their best bet is to get the courts to ignore the plain reading of the state constitution instead of getting voters to change that language themselves.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

LOUISVILLE — A constitutional amendment to allow the Kentucky General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools failed at the ballot box Tuesday.

Amendment 2 —  which 65% of voters rejected, — would have opened a path for the Republican-controlled legislature to allow state dollars to flow to nonpublic schools, such as private or charter schools. , Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, attempted to bolster support for the measure while Democrats led by Gov. Andy Beshear attacked the amendment as a threat to public education.

Opposition to Amendment 2 spanned rural and urban Kentucky, said Will Powers, the policy and public engagement coordinator for the Kentucky Student Voice Team, which toured the state by bus rallying opposition.

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“I think it’s a ubiquitous message. Everyone resonates with it,” Powers said Tuesday night during a Protect Ours Schools PAC watch party in Louisville. “Every community has a public school, not every community has a private school. And I think we’re seeing the ramifications of that one true fact.”

Jason Bailey, executive director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said he was not surprised Amendment 2 failed.

“The opposition to Amendment 2 was bipartisan,” Bailey said. “It was really defeated by a huge margin in many rural counties that also voted for Donald Trump. So Kentuckians are smart. They were discerning, and they they saw this for what it was. It was a scam funded by outside billionaires to shift dollars away from public schools and to fund private school vouchers. And Kentuckians, by it looks like a very wide margin, said no.”

KyPolicy, a progressive think tank, opposed the measure and earlier this year that showed how similar systems to fund private schools in other states could harm the state’s public schools if they were replicated in Kentucky. Bailey said the defeat of the amendment would be “an end to this debate” and politicians should focus on further investments in existing public schools.

Outgoing Senate Republican Floor Leader Damon Thayer, of Georgetown, called the Amendment 2 defeat “disappointing, but not surprising.” He said in a phone interview that opponents of the amendment “confused” voters and added that “it’s hard to get people to understand a constitutional question when the opposition completely misleads the issue.”

“Also, I wish the Republican Party of Kentucky had been more engaged in defending the issue,” Thayer said.

Thayer said the Kentucky Democratic Party was engaged in getting voters to oppose the amendment. KDP held numerous press conferences around the state led by Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, and Democratic candidates often voiced their opposition to the amendment while campaigning. “The RPK did not ever really engage despite the fact that it was a priority bill of our legislative supermajority,” Thayer said. “But it’s hard to change the Constitution. That’s the way it is. And it’s the one disappointment on what appears to be a really good night.”

Beshear said in a statement that lawmakers should “recognize the will of the people and get serious about ensuring that every Kentucky child gets a world-class public education.” Beshear said that includes better funding public schools, raising teacher pay and establishing a universal pre-K program in Kentucky.

“Kentucky voters have once again definitively stated that public dollars belong only in public schools,” Beshear said.

In a statement reacting to the defeat of Amendment 2, Kentucky Students First, one of the leading PACs supporting the amendment, said its members and volunteers “fought hard to change the status quo protected by Kentucky’s education special interests.”

“Though the results may not have been in our favor, this campaign has been a powerful force for standing up to the Kentucky education bureaucracy,” Kentucky Students First said. “Perpetuating the low performance of Kentucky’s education system is a disservice to our children and our Commonwealth. Kentucky students deserve better, and our resolve to serve students over systems remains unchanged.”

A lot of money has been spent trying to sway voters on Amendment 2, with both sides reporting , according to the final pre-election finance reports. Beshear and Paul both took to airwaves in ads sponsored by political action committees. Most of the $16 million came from outside Kentucky, with much of it from “dark money” groups which structure themselves in a way that lets them keep their donors’ names private.

Days , Paul heralded Amendment 2, saying it would allow “the legislature to do what they’re supposed to do — debate how best we should get education for our kids.” Beshear decried the amendment as “a blank check to Frankfort politicians.”

Amendment 2 would have suspended seven sections of the state Constitution to allow public money to flow to nonpublic schools. The legislation for the amendment was earlier this year and an attempt to overcome constitutional hurdles cited by Kentucky courts striking down earlier charter school and private school tax credit laws.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

LINCOLN — Voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected Nebraska’s new school voucher or scholarship program, steering public dollars spent to public schools.

Supporters of using state tax dollars to offset the costs of a private K-12 education have argued that families unhappy with their public schools need more options.

But rural and urban supporters of public schools, the Nebraska State Education Association and private foundations supporting public schools won the day.

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Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said he was proud to see right- and left-leaning counties agree that vouchers were the wrong choice.

“It confirms what we knew, the majority of Nebraskans don’t want public dollars going to private schools,” Royers said. “What really stood out to me is the consistency.”

Royers hopes state senators move on

Royers said he is hopeful that state senators will follow the will of the voters and move onto other more pressing issues in education that teachers and parents can work on together.

Support Our Schools argued that diverting even small amounts of public money toward private K-12 schools with a scholarship program or vouchers risked long-term support for public education.

They pointed to the experiences in other states with voucher programs, including neighboring Iowa, which has seen the national rankings of its public schools slide since that program began.

They argued that school choice programs typically end up largely benefiting the people already making the choice to send their children to private schools.

And they said such programs risked creating greater concentrations of poverty in some schools by draining them of students who often act as stabilizing force.

Lawmakers plan to keep working for choice

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha and other lawmakers backing “opportunity scholarships” have already said they plan to keep working for school choice regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

Linehan, in a statement, said the teachers union and Support Our Schools spent two years and $7 million distorting the truth “in their endless pursuit to keep opportunity away from kids.”

“I am confident Nebraskans and the leaders in this state will continue fighting to keep kids first,” Linehan said.

The first version of Nebraska’s school choice law, passed in 2023, provided a tax credit for those donating to a scholarship fund for private K-12 education. After passage, those opposing the law launched a petition drive to put the issue before voters.

2023 law replaced in 2024

Linehan sidestepped that referendum by replacing the law in the 2024 legislative session.

She and other lawmakers transformed the program into a $10 million annual state appropriation for private school vouchers, to be run through the office of State Treasurer Tom Briese, a Linehan ally.

The Support Our Schools campaign, with support from public school proponents, including Omaha Public Schools supporter Susie Buffett, collected the necessary signatures a second time to challenge the law on the ballot.

Royers, new president of the NSEA, and Jenni Benson of Support Our Schools, the previous NSEA leader, have said Linehan should not have tried to avoid letting voters weigh in on an unpopular program.

Families of some children attending private schools through the precursor program, Opportunity Scholarships, or through the latest version have said they can’t afford private school tuition without such financial help.

State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, a Democrat who supports school choice, has said parents cannot afford to wait for public school systems to improve. They need help for their kids now, he said.

Jeremy Ekeler, executive director of Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, said his group and supporters of the program have focused on helping families who couldn’t wait for school districts and systems to change.

“While tonight we did not see the results that we hoped for, those thousands of Nebraska families who finally have access to the right educational fit for their children thanks to LB 1402 will make their voices heard for years to come,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether other lawmakers will offer a similar proposal in 2025. Linehan and Wayne are both term-limited and won’t return to the Legislature next year.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

One day after the 2024 election, Gov. Bill Lee and lawmakers rolled out a recycled “universal” private-school voucher program designed to gain support from teachers and school districts with extra spending.

The measure doesn’t have a funding estimate attached, but lawmakers placed $144 million in this year’s budget for a plan that failed to pass, and the new proposal could cost another $275 million, plus funds to give teachers a one-time $2,000 bonus. In addition, 80% of all sports wagering money is to be dedicated to building and maintaining K-12 public schools.

Lee’s plan would provide 20,000 “scholarships” worth $7,075 for students to enroll in private schools in 2025-26 with 10,000 of those for students from families at or below 300% of the maximum income to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches — which is estimated to be nearly $175,000 per household income. Students with disabilities and those in the state’s education savings account program would be eligible too.

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Some 350 private schools would be eligible to participate in the program and would be required to administer the state’s standardized test or one that fits their curriculum, but the bill says they would maintain educational freedom.

The state would add 5,000 “scholarships” each year once 75% of them are provided to students.

In introducing the bill, Lee and key lawmakers said they want to offer students a chance at educational success “regardless of their ZIP code.”

“Giving parents the ability to choose for their child will provide more opportunities and reduce poverty throughout our state,” said House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who opposed the school voucher program in 2019. “Increased competition for a student’s enrollment will make schools, school systems and administrators meet the need for a higher quality of education.”

Lawmakers failed to pass a similar bill proposed by the governor earlier this year when the Senate and House couldn’t agree to widely disparate versions. The House bill contained funding to give teachers more money for insurance as well as for districts to maintain school buildings. The Senate version allowed students to transfer to any public district in the state.

Lee told reporters Wednesday this is the legislation’s “next step” and said he believes lawmakers are “moving in that direction” to pass the bill. General Assembly leaders have tried to address members’ concerns in writing the bill, he said.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth said in a statement the bill “leaves no stone unturned when it comes to providing the very best educational path to set the next generation up for success.” He said the measure will allow public schools to remain the foundation for Tennessee’s education system while enabling parents instead of the governor to determine which route helps their children the most.

The press release also says the bill “ensures state funding to school districts will never decrease due to disenrollment,” and the governor backed that up Wednesday.

One of opponents’ biggest complaints has been that private-school vouchers will drain money from public schools.

Yet the bill says a school district’s funding “shall not decrease from one year to the next year due to the disenrollment of students.” If districts lose students, the state would have to pay additional funds to those districts to cover those transfers for just one year.

In addition, the bill denies “scholarships” to undocumented students, even though a 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, prohibits states from denying students a free public education based on immigration status.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville said it is clear the governor is trying to buy teachers’ support with bonus pay.

“It’s offensive that this voucher con job, which quite clearly will make it nearly impossible for Tennessee to keep paying teachers what they deserve, is being accompanied by this one-time token money,” Yarbro said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on and .

Ohio spent nearly a billion dollars on private school scholarship programs for the 2024 fiscal year, the first full year with near-universal school vouchers.

The total scholarship amount for Ohio’s five private school scholarship programs was $970.7 million, according to final . Well more than a third that money ($406.7 million) was from Education Choice Expansion scholarships.

“I think this does have potentially a negative impact on students, on public schools around the margins, as you see those enrollment trends, but then in the big picture, when you have close to a billion dollars in public money that’s going to private schools, that means a billion dollars in state money that’s not available to meet the needs of the nearly 90% of kids that attend our public schools,” said Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro.

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The $970.7 million number is higher than the estimated predicted when it came to the scholarship programs.

The five private school scholarship programs are the Autism Scholarship Program, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program, the Cleveland Scholarship, the Education Choice Scholarship and the Educational Choice Expansion Scholarship Program.

Students on the autism spectrum are eligible to receive vouchers up to $32,455 for the Autism Scholarship Program. Students who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) from their district are eligible for the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship. The Cleveland Scholarship is for all students living in the boundaries of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Students living in the boundaries of a low-performing school district are eligible for Education Choice scholarships.

Lawmakers expanded the Education Choice-Expansion eligibility to 450% of the poverty line last year through the state budget — creating near-universal school vouchers. This means a family of four above the $135,000 income threshold can .

K-8 students can receive a $6,165 scholarship and high schoolers can receive a $8,407 scholarship in state funding under the expansion.

There were 93,159 applicants for the EdChoice Expansion scholarships and 89,794 were awarded scholarships, according to ODEW data. The amount of EdChoice-Expansion scholarship payments more than tripled from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024.

For the traditional EdChoice scholarships, there were 44,020 applicants and 42,779 were awarded scholarships — totaling $273.1 million, according to ODEW data.

During this time, nonpublic school enrollment increased about 2%, going from 169,807 in fiscal year 2023 to 173,156 in fiscal year 2024, according to ODEW data.

Public school enrollment declined slightly — dropping about 6,000 students from the 2022-23 school year to the 2023-24 school year.

Most of these new EdChoice Expansion scholarships are students who were already attending private schools, DiMauro said. Ohio’s voucher program started with the Cleveland Scholarships back in 1996.

“This was intended to help students who didn’t have the resources to have options outside of public schools,” DiMauro said. “(The EdChoice Expansion) is clearly intended to benefit people that had long ago made the decision to send their kids to private schools.”

In some cases, the universal vouchers have allowed private schools to increase tuition, he said.

“The increased revenue comes at the expense of the state,” DiMauro said. “It’s the private schools themselves that are directly being subsidized through this program, even more than families are.”

If private schools are going to accept vouchers, DiMauro wishes there was more transparency when it comes to private school tuition.

The OLSC predicts the five scholarship programs’ payment total will exceed a billion dollars next year.

Aaron Churchill, Ohio’s research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, thinks these scholarship payment figures are sustainable year-to-year.

“I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said. “We can support great public schools. We can provide the resources for them. … We can also empower families with greater choice. And I think that’s the direction that Ohio is moving.”

Total payments for the five scholarship programs for the past five fiscal years, according to ODEW data:

$610.2 million in fiscal year 2023 $554.5 million in fiscal year 2022$444.5 million in fiscal year 2021$394.2 million in fiscal year 2020$346.6 million In fiscal year 2019

Remaining scholarships

For the Cleveland Scholarship this fiscal year, there were 8,626 applicants and 8,361 scholarships were given — totaling $53.6 million, according to ODEW data.

There were 5,610 applicants for the Autism Scholarship and 5,385 were awarded for $141.7 million, according to ODEW data.

For the Jon Peterson Scholarship, there were 9,439 applicants and 9,082 scholarships were awarded, totaling $95.6 million, according to ODEW data.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

The bowls of Caesar salad, spaghetti and chicken piccata are all made with fresh ingredients. And each bowl has tongs for the half dozen students and a teacher at each table to serve themselves as they rotate the wheel. 

Two students at the Ohio school step to the front of the cafeteria to present what the school’s founding principal A.J. Stich calls the school’s “grace” — its goals for each student when they become adults.

One of the two students reads each line aloud, then pauses for the 102 kindergarten through fourth grade students in the cafeteria to repeat it: 

Each day, I will work to achieve our Age 27 goals:

Being physically and mentally healthy,

Demonstrating character and integrity,

Preparing for a career and for financial independence,

And living my own definition of success.

May this food help our bodies;

We are thankful for the hands that made it and for the friends we share it with.

Family-style meals and the daily repetition of goals for their adult lives are one of several ways the Greater Dayton School sets itself apart from a typical school. 

A private school that only accepts low income students, Greater Dayton is designed to help them with more than academics. Its goal is to let students set their own course in life and be financially independent and healthy as adults, not just graduate from high school or go to college. 

Launched in the fall of 2022, the Greater Dayton School has income limits for all students, other than children of staff who may also attend. The school has a health clinic for students, extended school days until 5 p.m, two teachers in every classroom, individualized learning plans, and even schoolwide toothbrushing times.

Initially housed in a former Salvation Army administration building, the school hopes to grow to about 400 students from preschool to eighth grade. It’s still an experiment that’s too young to show a track record of success, but it already has a buzz around the city and drew Ohio’s Lt. governor to the grand opening of its new, much larger $50 million building this spring

“It’s really about the whole child, not just about academics,” said Larry Connor, a Dayton real estate developer whose and foundation is funding most of the school. “Make no mistake, academics is important. But their physical health and their mental health is integral in obtaining good academic outcomes.”

Though the school is partially funded by state tuition vouchers of $6,165 per student, Greater Dayton spends $30,000 a year or more per student, with Connor and his company’s foundation covering the gap.

“Our objective is to build a model that can be replicated in cities throughout the United States,” Connor said. “We’re trying to take a really long term view, because every community in America has this type of need.”

Stich and other school leaders consulted successful schools across the country such as Meeting Street Academy in Charleston, S.C., Christina Seix Academy in Trenton, N.J., and the Waterside School in Stamford, Conn. as they built their plan to offer all the supports research says low-income kids need.

The school creates personal education plans for each student and lets them set much of their plan for each day — what the school calls their playlist — to give them ownership of their learning. 

It limits classes to 20 students, then places two full-time teachers in each class. Students do much of their work online at their own pace, using programs from Zearn or Lexia while the teachers work with students individually or in small groups. 

Students are grouped with a few grades in each classroom to intentionally mix ages. Eventually, after it adds grades, the school will group students in classrooms of Prek, K-2, 3-5 and 6-8.

“From an academic standpoint, I think it’s wonderful,” said Brittany Wylie, who teaches grades 2-4 as the school grows. “And it’s effective. In years past, if I had a fifth grade classroom, the actual academic level of those students could range anywhere from kindergarten through sixth grade, but I was expected to teach them all just fifth grade curriculum, whether they actually grasp it or not. Here, I feel like I’m actually seeing students understand and digest and then be able to move on.”

Greater Dayton also supports students and families with after school activities until 5 p.m. The extra time solves child care needs of working parents, while also helping close the gap between what suburban and affluent students receive in enrichment activities and what lower income families can afford.

While some students build models of rockets or the Taj Mahal with Legos, others run a store where others buy items with “money” they earn by meeting school goals. Mark Kreider, the school’s financial literacy teacher, oversees the store after spending the day teaching even the youngest students the basics of business and savings.

“There’s no such thing as too early,” Kreider said. “I really think that this idea of building wealth, versus just surviving is such a critical concept for our kids,” said Kreider. “We talk about financial independence…because if you’re in this cycle of paycheck to paycheck, drowning in debt, your options are just incredibly narrow.”

“I don’t know what our kids are going to do when they get older,” he added. “But I just want them to have options. Will they all own a small business? Probably not. But they should at least know how and know how to think about it. It’s almost like a worldview, a perspective. Hey, that’s the dream.”

Students also earn freedom with good behavior, earning the right to work outside the classroom, often on the giant open staircase and terrace with couches that overlook the cafeteria.

Student health is a major part of the school’s mission. Students have more than an hour of physical education each day. Meals are at least 80 percent whole foods, with minimal processing or sugar, other than a dessert only on Fridays.

The school also has created a medical and dental office in the school, run by Dayton Children’s Hospital, so students can receive care as part of the school day, without parents having to take them out of school. Because Medicaid eligibility is a requirement for most students to enroll, the care is already covered.

“When it’s time for kids to go to the doctor, go to the dentist, they walk downstairs, and then they go back to class,” Stitch said.

The school even makes brushing teeth a daily habit by having all students head to the bathrooms at scheduled times to brush, as teachers watch to be sure they do it right.

Mental health is also a priority, particularly since students can come from families facing financial and other challenges. The school has a mental health counselor now for its 102 students and plans to add another as the school grows. 

How much impact the school is having is still unclear. Like other Ohio private schools, its students don’t take Ohio’s state tests. Using NWEA diagnostic test scores and NWEA’s own model for comparing scores to Ohio state tests, the school estimates that students are gaining academically faster than state averages and that 72 percent of its students score as proficient, compared to 45 percent of low-income students in Dayton’s county.

Wylie, who previously taught in the high-poverty Youngstown schools, said the school setting high standards and then rewarding students who meet them creates an atmosphere of accountability and trust that shows students how to thrive.

“We really believe that they can do anything they set their mind to, that they will be successful, and that they are valuable,” she said. “My personal belief is that students from any background, if they haven’t had an example modeled for them, they don’t know any better. They just need the opportunity to be shown.”

Following five years of unsuccessful attempts by Georgia Republican lawmakers to expand the state’s school voucher program, GOP Senators on Wednesday cast enough votes to send the latest version of the controversial plan to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk to be signed into law.

On Wednesday, several Republican House Majority Caucus members joined their colleagues in the Senate chamber to celebrate the so-called Georgia Promise Schools Act’s passage by a 33-21 party-line vote. The measure allows families with students enrolled in Georgia’s K-12 public schools to remove $6,500 of state funding provided to local school districts in order to attend private schools or to homeschool.

Critics of the vouchers continued the debate on Wednesday whether $6,500 would be enough for o afford cost of tuition at many of the state’s better private schools.

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Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Cumming Republican, said that $6,500 is close to the state’s median private school cost, which should entice parents of students attending low-performing schools to send their children to a private school.

According to , the average private school tuition in Georgia is $11,893 per year, and tuition in the state ranges from $1,042 to $57,500.

Dolezal praised the GOP leadership in the House and Senate as well as Kemp for fighting to get across the finish line ahead of the March 29 deadline for this year’s Legislative session.

“I remember my freshman year 2019 when this bill failed on the floor of the Senate,” Dolezal said. “It means the world to me that five years later we united around this tailored bill that we can all agree is a step in the right direction.”

Different versions of so-called school choice proposals as a number of Republican legislators joined the majority Democratic lawmakers to block a plan they contend would divert taxpayer funding crucial to public schools to cover private schools.Several conservative state lawmakers from rural areas in the past have frequently criticized the expansion of a voucher program that local school officials contend will cost them funding that will be hard to cover with local money.

Senate Bill 233’s notable changes this year are intended to address recurring criticisms of voucher programs by attempting to ensure vouchers are available to students from low income families and hold private schools accountable by reporting to the state how those students are performing academically.

According to the bill, private schools must administer standardized tests to students enrolled in the program. In addition, vouchers will be prioritized for families with household incomes under 400% of the poverty level, amounting to $120,000 for a family of four.

If signed into law, the promise scholarship vouchers would first be available in the fall 2025 school year. Gov. Brian Kemp said earlier this year that the voucher program was a top legislative priority this year.

The bill caps the states’ investment into the program at 1% of the state’s Quality Basic Education formula budgeted for K-12 public education, which now comes out to $141 million annually to cover tuition for about 21,500 students.

The program would have a 10-year window before it expires. Any student enrolled in the program when it ends will keep receiving the payments until they graduate from high school.

Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat, compared the $6,500 voucher to a shiny object to misdirect attention away from how the Legislature has failed to provide many school districts across the state with the financial resources they need to succeed.

“The reality is that a $6,500 voucher doesn’t go nearly far enough to afford any quality, private education,” she said. “The state spends more than that on public schools.

“If you want to talk about real school choice, let’s put our money where our mouth is,” Parent said. “Give every kid $20,000, give $25,000, then we’d actually be talking about real school choice.”

Cobb County Republican Sen. Ed Setzler said the notion of school choice is often exercised by his fellow legislators and many other Georgians who have enough money to attend a strong academically performing public school or be able to afford homeschooling or private school tuition.

“Senate Bill 233 is for those single moms out there working two jobs to keep the lights on who wants school choice for their kids,” he said. “They can’t afford to move to a neighborhood in an area that has a successful public school. They can’t afford to move and sell their house because they’re upside down in their mortgage.”

Sen Nabilah Islam-Parkes said private schools’ autonomy in choosing which types of students they want to accept likely means many students who might benefit most from being in a new environment would be left behind.

“This bill is a thinly veiled effort to segregate and discriminate, under the guise of choice, private institutions free to pick their students will inevitably leave behind those who perhaps need the most support like our special needs kids, our struggling learners,” said the Duluth Democrat.

The nonprofit IDRA, which focuses on equal education opportunities, and the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition labeled it a harmful bill that diverts resources away from the state’s 1.7 million students in public schools.

The legislation was applauded by the conservative-leaning Americans for Prosperity-Georgia’s state director Tony West.

“Every yes vote today was a vote to empower families and students with the choices and resources they need to chart bright futures for Georgia’s students,” West said in a statement. “We applaud the lawmakers who heard from their constituents and made the right choice to expand educational opportunity in the Peach State. This unlocks so much potential for Georgia’s students.”

Georgia Recorder reporter Ross Williams contributed to this report.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

St. Anthony would have closed if Ohio’s legislature had not made vouchers so available over the last 10 years — so much so that the school can fill its 225 seats with students using vouchers to pay tuition they couldn’t afford otherwise, said Scott Embacher, a consultant for the school.

Without the vouchers “it would be stunning if we were still open,” he said.

Private schools across Ohio like St. Anthony have seen an infusion of hundreds of millions of tax dollars in recent years as the Republican-dominated state legislature has made vouchers available to more and more families. After years of enrollment declines and closures, private school operators, particularly religious schools, are filling seats, adding students and even looking to expand.

Voucher use in Ohio has grown more than 400 percent in the last 10 years, from 30,000 students in 2013-14 to more than 120,000 today. The state tax dollars going to families and private schools has grown from $175 million then to potentially $1 billion a year now.

The most dramatic leap — a nearly 50 percent jump from 83,000 to 120,000 — came just this school year after the Ohio legislature eliminated the last income cap for families to receive a voucher in summer of 2023.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, the legislature’s leading champion of vouchers, said he expects that number to climb again in the 2024-25 school year. Because the eligibility rules were changed so late, families and schools had little time to learn of the changes and make plans for the fall.

“People have already made their decisions for the year about where their child is going to go,” he said. “They’re going out for the basketball team, and they’ve already got the bus route . So the increase in the number of new students next year, it’s going to be much greater, because people will have figured it out.”

Huffman said he hopes the latest increase in vouchers will help older schools build up enrollment and even add new classrooms. He has hinted at directing more money to them, but has not proposed any plan yet.

If he does, Ohio’s bitter debates over vouchers that started when it was one of the pioneering states in the movement will flare up again. 

Ohio’s Cleveland-only voucher program in the 1990s was one of the first in the country and sparked complaints that it improperly advanced religion by providing tax money for religious schools. The landmark Zelman vs. Simons-Harris Supreme Court ruling in 2002, which sprung out of the Cleveland vouchers, allowed religious schools to be part of voucher programs if they were not the only recipients.

Since then, often led by Huffman, Ohio has added vouchers for low-income students, for those whose local public schools were designated as “failing” because of low test scores and then for families with ever-increasing incomes, raised in steps over time. Most recently, the legislature in 2023 removed the last income limit for voucher eligibility.

Every student is now eligible for $6,165 through eighth grade and $8,407 for high school, with a sliding scale of reductions only when family income is over 450 percent of the poverty level, or $135,000 for a family of four. Even then, voucher amounts can never go below 10 percent of the standard amount.

At each step voucher expansion drew applause from school choice advocates, while also sparking complaints from school districts and teachers unions that they pulled students and dollars out of district schools. Criticism of funneling money to religious schools has continued, as several estimates show more than 95 percent of voucher dollars in Ohio go to those religious schools.

A coalition of school districts have sued the state to block voucher expansion for these reasons since 2022. A trial is scheduled for November.

State aid to private schools could grow in yet another way. Some school choice advocates, including the conservative Buckeye Institute, have started calling for the state to start paying for private school construction, as it does with public schools. Brian Hickey, executive director of the Ohio Catholic Conference, said schools would welcome help building schools in rural areas that don’t have existing Catholic schools.

St. Anthony is looking for money to build a four-classroom addition behind the school and has early drawings of how it would look while it seeks funding. The school is already asking legislators if there might be state money available.

The most recent voucher expansion passed in 2023 seems to be serving students already at private school in this first year, avoiding the usual complaints of taking students from traditional districts. But critics blast it as simply a transfer of money to middle- and upper-class families who had already been able to afford having their children in private school.

Criticism persists that Ohio’s voucher programs have less state accountability than traditional school districts or charter schools. There is no national consensus on how voucher students are tested and if schools should be rated.  

Some states, like neighboring Indiana, have private school students using vouchers take all state tests. The state then gives those schools the same report cards as district and charter schools.

In Ohio, the legislature has slowly stripped away requirements for voucher students to take state tests and now have the voucher schools just report results of other national standardized tests of their own choosing, like the ACT or SAT.

That has long drawn criticism from opponents, who say that all schools using tax money should be held to the same standards.

“One thing that you won’t see in the (state) report cards is ratings for private schools that are now taking hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, subsidizing private school tuition,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, one of the state’s two large teachers union. “As voucher enrollment is exploding, I think there is a massive need for accountability.”

In response to these complaints, two Republican representatives introduced a bill last month calling for state report cards for private schools accepting vouchers and for those schools to report more financial and student disciplinary data.The bill has yet to have a hearing.

The conservative leaning Fordham Institute, which supports school choice and most of the voucher expansion, has publicly shared concerns about accountability. And while Chad Aldis, who leads Fordham in Ohio, said he’d probably support money helping private school construction, he’d want safeguards there too. As with charter schools, Aldis would want to be sure private school operators can’t build facilities or buy equipment with tax money and then use them for something other than a school.

Voucher supporters say adding testing and other reporting requirements would increase administrative work and costs. They say the schools are a bargain, costing the public far less than district schools with all their local taxes on top of state aid. And they say parents don’t need report cards to know if the school is right for their children.

Huffman said it’s not really fair for public schools to call for the same accountability for private schools because public school districts never close. Private schools have had to close after losing students, he said.

“They’re not held accountable,” Huffman said. “They in fact, continue to operate, especially schools that don’t perform academically. That’s not true for private schools, because parents take their kids out.”

Attorneys for public school advocates said in oral arguments Tuesday before the Mississippi Supreme Court that the state constitutional provision that prevents public funds from going to private schools is “ironclad.”

Attorneys Rob McDuff and Will Bardwell, representing Parents for Public Schools, said at the time of the writing of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution that public funds were being spent on private schools and the framers of the constitution sought to prevent that from occurring. Section 208 of the constitution says, in part, that public funds shall not be provided to any school “not conducted as a free school.”

The Parents for Public Schools organization filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of a $10 million state legislative appropriation made to the Midsouth Association of Independents Schools.

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“Section 208 expresses a simple principle: public money shall go to public schools,” McDuff told a three-justice panel of the nine-member Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Only justices Leslie King of the Central District, Robert Chamberlin of the Northern District and David Ishee of the Southern District heard the oral arguments, though it is possible that all nine justices will rule on the issue. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court by state Attorney General Lynn Fitch after Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Mastin ruled the Legislature’s action was unconstitutional.

Justin Matheny of the Attorney General’s Office argued Tuesday that it was OK for the Legislature to appropriate the money to the state’s private schools for infrastructure repairs because the funds were not state money but were part of the more than $1 billion in federal funds provided to the state for COVID-19 relief.

Additionally, Matheny pointed out the funds were not directly appropriated to the private schools by the Legislature, but to the state Department of Finance and Administration with the instruction to send the money to the private schools in the form of grants. King of the Central District, who presided over the three-justice panel, told Matheny that it was the custom of the Legislature to appropriate most funds to state agencies with instructions to provide the money to the entity that the Legislature intended to receive the funds.

Matheny also argued that the Parents for Public Schools was not directly harmed by the Legislature’s action so the advocacy group did not have standing to bring the case. Bardwell argued that the group as taxpayers, including taxpaying parents of public school students, did have standing.

King asked Matheny if he was arguing that sometimes there is no one with standing to file a lawsuit challenging a legislative action as unconstitutional.

Matheny replied, “It is possible and it should not bother anyone” since no one was harmed by the legislative action. He said the appropriated money was not state funds reserved for public schools, so no one was harmed.

Chamberlin then posed a hypothetical to McDuff: If Congress earmarked money specifically for private schools, would the Mississippi Legislature be able to appropriate it to the private schools then? McDuff replied the Legislature would not under Section 208 of the state constitution. Of course, under Chamberlin’s hypothetical, Congress could bypass the Legislature and send money directly to the private schools just as it did to public schools as part of some of the COVID-19 relief funds.

The money the Legislature appropriated to the private schools in 2022 was part of a pot of federal discretionary funds that were sent to the states to be used in numerous areas, including on infrastructure improvements. But since the money was public, Bardwell and McDuff argued, in Mississippi it could not go to private schools.

Buck Dougherty of the Liberty Justice Center argued that the private schools should be allowed to intervene in the case. The private schools were not allowed to intervene in the lower Hinds County Chancery Court. Martin, the judge in the original case, ruled that the request to intervene was made too late.

In addition, Dougherty argued that Section 208 of the state constitution violates the U.S. Constitution. He said that constitutional provisions in various states prohibiting public money from going to private religious schools have been ruled as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Bardwell pointed out that the issue is not public money going to religious schools.

He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that “the state is not obligated to fund private schools.” But if a state is providing funds to a private school, it cannot discriminate against religious schools. The key difference, Bardwell said, is that Mississippi Constitution’s Section 208 prohibited public funds from going to all private schools.

Numerous people on both sides of the issue attended the Tuesday oral arguments in downtown Jackson.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

LINCOLN — The next front in Nebraska’s school choice fight could shift toward a proposal by State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair under which the state would deposit $1,500 a year per student into a new type of state-managed savings account for parents and guardians of students attending private K-12 schools.

Using the language of national school choice advocates, Hansen said his goal is to “fund students, not systems.” He said he has seen other states such as Iowa and Arizona use similar plans to subsidize private school costs.

“Parents are the primary educators of their children, not the government,” he told the Legislature’s Education Committee on Tuesday. “Our role should assist parents in that job.”

would let people use the funds for private school tuition, textbooks, school supplies, therapies, books and academic materials approved by the Nebraska Board of Education. The new educational savings accounts for approved or accredited private K-12 schools would begin in the 2025-26 school year.

The accounts would be overseen by the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office. But the accounts would offer no tax advantages like the tax-free 529 college savings plans the Treasurer’s Office currently oversees. Instead, under LB 1386, these accounts would act as pass-throughs for state appropriations into a school choice fund that would be created, invested and managed by the state.

One Fremont-area father testified about his difficulties getting a public school to accept his option-enrollment daughter with moderate hearing loss, because she had an individualized education program, or IEP. He and others said the voucher program would make it easier for them to afford private school.

Opponents testified that they wanted public dollars spent on public schools.

Critics point to constitution

The fiscal note said if 80% of Nebraska’s 33,611 private school students applied for the fund it could cost the state $40 million.

The note also estimated the State Treasurer’s Office would need $300,000 to administer the accounts. That includes the costs of an auditor to make sure the funds are properly spent.

Critics of the voucher push said the plan would violate the Nebraska Constitution’s Article VII, Section 11, which says, “No appropriation or grant of public funds or property shall be made to any educational institution which is not owned and controlled by the state or a governmental subdivision thereof.”

Royers said private schools would receive public money, an issue opponents raised last year about the new Opportunity Scholarship Act.

Hansen, reached after the hearing, disagreed. He and State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state funds can be used this way three times. He explained the Nebraska workaround: The state will be giving state tax dollars to parents and not to private schools, he said.

He said he proposed starting with $1,500 a year because that’s how much state lawmakers funded last year as a baseline level of state aid per public school student. Iowa last session expanded its student savings account for private school students to the full cost of state aid per K-12 student, $7,598 a year.

Royers said other states starting similar voucher programs have learned that the programs largely help offset the costs of students already attending private schools. He said they don’t often create a large influx of new students from public schools who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend. Private school students in Iowa and elsewhere often see large increases in private school tuition rates once state support increases, he said.

And the funding lost to public schools leaves public school students and districts in worse shape, Royers said.

“We should be learning from the mistakes coming out of other states…,” Royers said. “This does not help needy families. It helps private schools.”

Wayne questions Royers

State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, a school choice advocate, asked Royers why it was OK for the state to subsidize private preschool education and private higher education but not K-12.

“Is there something special about those years?” he asked, after Royers did not answer the first few times he asked.

A representative of the Holland Children’s Movement shared data from its 2023 poll indicating more than 60% of Nebraskans opposed subsidizing private schools with public funding.

Linehan and Education Committee Chairman Dave Murman said they had seen polling that found the opposite, indicating broad statewide support for school choice programs.

“It depends on how you ask the question,” Linehan said.

Hansen expects the bill to reach the legislative floor this session. Bill opponents, including the NSEA, say they will be ready.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

Missouri University of Science and Technology will grant K-12 scholarships through the state’s tax-credit-based program MOScholars beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.

A nonprofit within Missouri S&T will become the seventh educational assistance organization, or EAO, in the MOScholars program. EAOs receive donations through a process overseen by the state treasurer and remit the money into scholarships for private-school and homeschool expenses.

According to emails obtained by The Independent in an open records request, Stephen Roberts, vice chancellor of strategic initiatives for Missouri S&T, shared information about the program with other administrators as early as May, describing MOScholars as a “philanthropy opportunity/vehicle.”

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He told The Independent on Wednesday that the program’s objectives align with the goals of the university and its partnered nonprofit, the Kummer Institute Foundation.

“Missouri S&T is a public land grant university, and as such has a responsibility to provide broad access to educational opportunities in the K-12 community,” he said in a statement. “The aims of the Missouri Scholars program have strong overlap with these objectives.”

Roberts wrote in a May 10 email that students could potentially use MOScholars’s $6,500 funding to pay for Missouri S&T camps or dual-enrollment programs.

Andrew Careaga, who leads the university’s communications, had the same impression in May after talking to the treasurer.

“State Treasurer Vivek Malek describes this program as an opportunity for individuals to earn tax credits by designating funds to scholarships for our summer camps if we were to become designated as an EAO,” he wrote in an email.

Roberts told The Independent that the K-12 scholarships only cover costs administered by a student’s school.

“The rules prohibit award of scholarships so that students can access educational programs offered directly by the EAO,” he said. “For a student to be awarded a scholarship, the educational programs must be offered directly by the eligible schools.”

But the idea of participating in MOScholars wasn’t enthusiastically received by all administrators.

Missouri S&T is a public higher education institution with public K-12 partnerships, such as — a program with STEM courses for high school students offering college credit. Beth Kania-Gosche, chair of the university’s department of teacher education and certification, wrote in an October email that she had a “PR concern” about participating in MOScholars.

“The other EAOs are all religious organizations,” she wrote. “We have to submit a fundraising plan as part of the application, and I have concerns about publicly connecting the STEM Center to fundraising for a controversial topic like school vouchers.”

“We partner with public schools on all of our programming,” she continued, “and if they have the perception we are raising funds for school vouchers, it’s problematic. “

Facilitators of the MOScholars program shy from the term “vouchers” because Missouri’s K-12 scholarships are not a direct state appropriation, although the program  does affect state finance. Donations made to the program, because they receive a 1:1 tax credit, come out of the state’s general fund.

Colin Potts, Missouri S&T’s provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, replied to address Kania-Gosche’s fears, but it is unclear if any resolution was reached.

“Beth, I know that you had some concerns about the wisdom of being seen to be supporting schools that have a less than rigorous approach to STEM and that this could undermine your relationships with public schools,” he wrote. “We’ll do what we can to avoid any issues of this kind.”

The application listed 11 schools the university is willing to issue scholarships to, with the disclaimer that the “list may not be inclusive.” All but one of these schools are religious.

Roberts told The Independent the program allows EAOs to grant scholarships to students with expenses in any public or private school, not just those listed on the application.

“Our intent would be to award as broadly as possible under these rules,” he said.

The university will accept applicants from Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County, Jefferson City, Cole County,
Springfield, Greene County,
St. Louis and St. Louis County.

Missouri S&T also plans to support homeschooled students, according to the application.

The 11 schools listed on the application are: Calgary Lutheran High School, Helias Catholic High School, Immaculate Conception, Nerinx Hall, Notre Dame Regional High School, Notre Dame High School,
St. Louis University High School, St. Peter Interparish School, St. Joseph Cathedral School,
Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School and Webster County Parochial #1.

Email records show coordination between the university and the treasurer.

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, the university’s vice provost and dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education, wrote Oct. 30 Malek told the Missouri S&T to submit its application as though it was a nonprofit organization.

The university submitted its application Oct. 31, the day it was due, writing that a nonprofit within Missouri S&T called the will serve as the required 501c3.

Kummer Institute leaders were included in early conversations about the program, but the decision to use the nonprofit as the EAO vehicle seems to occur the day the application is submitted.

“Let’s submit the application under the Kummer Foundation which is a 501c3,” Alysha O’Neil, vice chancellor for finance and operations, wrote the morning the application was submitted.

Missouri S&T and the Kummer Institute Foundation requested $1million in tax credits for the 2024-2025 school year and plans to serve 136 students.

“I am thrilled to see the number of educational assistance organizations participating in MOScholars is growing,” State Treasurer Vivek Malek said in a statement. “We welcome the Kummer Institute Foundation and commend them for their interest in providing educational opportunities as an EAO.”

The MOScholars program is currently as it faces a lag between the school year and donations, prompting some EAOs to loan their own money and increase fundraising.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on and .

A new statewide survey shows that although most Hoosier kids attending private schools are continuing to learn cursive, far fewer Indiana public schools currently teach the writing style to younger students.

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) surveyed 1,770 schools across Indiana this fall. Of the 1,386 respondents, 91% of state-accredited non-public schools are teaching cursive writing, but only 52% of public schools reported teaching it.

The survey was part of an ongoing, yearslong push to bring cursive writing back to Hoosier schools, spearheaded by Republican Sen. Jean Leising. She said the new survey data indicates that many Hoosier students attending public schools are at a “clear disadvantage,” and vowed to renew her legislative efforts to require cursive instruction.

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“I have been an unwavering proponent of cursive writing in the Indiana General Assembly for more than a decade. My concerns originally centered around making sure our children could sign their names on legal documents and read historical texts, but it is now much larger than that,” Leising said in a statement Monday. “They need to have the necessary motor skills and strong cognitive ability to succeed academically and professionally, and learning cursive writing can only further support their development.”

“Opponents of cursive writing say schools should focus more on teaching typewriting skills in an evolving age of technology and online work,” she continued. “I argue, cursive is equally important, and we risk limiting development of student’s learning abilities by moving away from essential handwriting curriculum.”

Writing on the walls?

The “Cursive Writing Survey” was sent out in August and September to all schools and corporations teaching grades K-6. Local administrators had until Oct. 1 to submit their responses.

About 78% of all schools participated in the IDOE survey. Of the 1,386 schools that reported, 80.4% were traditional public schools, 16.7% were state accredited non-public schools, and 2.9% were charter schools.

Of those schools that responded to the survey, 58.4% — equal to 809 schools — reported that cursive writing instruction is taking place in their classrooms. In the majority of schools where cursive is taught, instruction is primarily administered to students in grades two through four. A majority of the instruction takes place in grade three, according to the IDOE analysis.

Cursive is more commonly taught in private schools, though.

Of the 230 non-public schools that responded to the survey, 210 reported that cursive writing instruction is taking place. To compare, 580 out of the 1,110 traditional public schools that responded to the survey reported current cursive instruction.

Still, the survey is not totally conclusive, given that 384 K-6 schools across Indiana did not respond. The public report also doesn’t indicate which schools participates — leaving it unclear how many students are represented in the study.

Leising wants cursive back

Cursive writing hasn’t been required in Indiana’s public schools since 2010 — something Leising, R-Oldenburg, has been working to change for years.

During the 2023 legislative session, her originally required traditional public and charter elementary schools to include some form of cursive writing curriculum for the state’s younger students.

Leising — who has filed similar bills in the last decade to no avail — pared down the final version of the measure to instead require schools to report to the state education department about whether cursive writing is part of the curriculum there. The IDOE was tasked with creating a report with that information.

Leising maintained during the session that many private schools in Indiana are teaching the writing style, but the majority of public schools are not.

This week, the senator again pointed to showing that writing in cursive heightens activity in certain parts of the brain tied to memory and encoding new information, which she reiterated” is integral to early childhood learning.” Other cited by Leising show children who wrote in cursive had better reading and writing skills compared to those who didn’t.

“While lawmakers look to tackle literacy during the 2024 legislative session, I plan to join this initiative by also advocating for cursive writing curriculum, since various studies show knowing how to write in cursive helps improve information retention and comprehension abilities — supporting the successful development of reading and writing skills,” Leising said. “It is clear our students need support — now more than ever — to build foundational reading, comprehension and writing skills for their future success.”

Critics of mandatory cursive instruction say students already have too many subjects to master and that they’re better off focusing on typing and coding.

Teaching cursive in public schools waned after the Common Core standards, which most states adopted, didn’t include cursive in the recommended curriculum. , pointing to studies that show a link between cursive and cognitive abilities, including helping with reading and writing disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia.

Indiana isn’t the only state seeking to bring back cursive writing, however.

At least 22 states currently require cursive to be taught as part of the public school curriculum, according to the National Education Association. And the list is growing.

In October, the California legislature unanimously passed — and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed — a law requiring the teaching of cursive or “joined italics” handwriting in grades one through six.

Earlier this year, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu additionally signed a bill requiring schools to teach cursive and multiplication tables.

Indiana lawmakers return to the Statehouse next month for a non-budget session. Legislative leaders have not included cursive instruction in their 2024 priorities, but literacy-focused initiatives — especially those affecting grade three — are expected to top education policy efforts.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

A Franklin Circuit Court judge on Monday struck down a law allowing charter schools in Kentucky, ahead of an in next year’s legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would allow public money to be spent on private schools.

Judge Phillip Shepherd declared 2022’s unconstitutional in a lawsuit filed by the , which represents 168 Kentucky school districts.

Shepherd wrote that charter schools are “private entities” that do not meet the Kentucky Constitution’s definition of  “public schools” or “common schools.”

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The “policy goals of the legislation are not at issue in this case,” wrote Shepherd. “Here, the only issue is whether the legislation runs afoul of the very specific mandates of the Kentucky Constitution governing public education and the expenditure of tax dollars.”

Shepherd concluded there “is no way to stretch the definition of ‘common schools’ so broadly that it would include such privately owned and operated schools that are exempt from the statutes and administrative regulations governing public school education.”

Common schools are supported by public taxes and all children within the district who meet age requirements of the school are allowed to attend it, the judge wrote. “The common schools must be open to every child, and operated, managed and fully accountable to the taxpaying public.”

“Under HB 9, charter schools — unlike common schools — are specifically permitted to impose enrollment caps limiting their enrollment to a number of children who will ensure ease of instruction through small class sizes,” Shepherd wrote. “Charter schools may turn away qualified children residing in the district. As set forth in the legislation, taxpayer supported charter schools are authorized to limit their enrollment, and to ‘conduct an admissions lottery if capacity is insufficient to enroll all students who wish to attend the school’.”

The ruling comes as a is seeking to become Kentucky’s first charter school. Gus LaFontaine, who owns , a pre-K to fifth-grade private school, was an intervenor in the lawsuit.

After the ruling, LaFonatine pointed out that 45 states, including those on Kentucky’s borders, offer “charter school options” and said that “we will continue to pursue judicial resolution that results in empowering all parents to participate in education freedom; even those that are not financially capable.”

Attorney General Daniel Cameron also intervened in the suit to defend the law.

Tom Shelton, executive secretary of the Council for Better Education, said “CBE appreciates the ruling from Judge Shepherd supporting our opinion that HB 9 violated our Kentucky Constitution. The constitution specifically prohibits the privatization of public funds. Public funds are for public purposes.”

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who has frequently voiced opposition to charter schools, vetoed House Bill 9 but the Republican-led General Assembly overrode it. Beshear was recently reelected to a second term.

The filed its lawsuit against Kentucky education officials in January seeking the law be ruled unconstitutional.

In December 2022, the Kentucky Supreme Court a Kentucky law creating a generous tax credit to help families pay for tuition at private schools. The which upheld a circuit court ruling by Shepherd, cited a long line of precedent reinforcing the Kentucky Constitution’s ban on the state financially supporting private schools.

did not advance in this year’s session but is expected to have much more support in 2024, when constitutional amendments will be on the November ballot.

After yesterday’s ruling, the Kentucky House Democratic caucus leaders issued a statement applauding the decision: The Kentucky Constitution is abundantly clear: The General Assembly can only authorize and fund public education. We said that in 2017, when charter schools were first approved; we said that again in 2022, when the law rejected today was passed; and we’ll say it once more in 2024, when there will be yet another attempt to route public tax dollars into private schools. Our belief is simple: Follow the constitution and give public education our undivided support.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

OKLAHOMA CITY — Tens of thousands of Oklahoma families applied for private school tax credits within minutes of the program’s launch, potentially consuming the entire $150 million budget after an hour and a half.

The state received more than 30,000 submissions for the new parental choice tax credits within the first 90 minutes of the application window on Wednesday, according to a news release from Gov. Kevin Stitt.

“It is amazing to see the demand for this program, and I hope the legislature will consider ways to allow more families to apply for this tax credit in the future,” Stitt said in a statement Thursday night.

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About in Oklahoma. More than 150 private schools had registered with the program by Wednesday afternoon so their students could be eligible to apply.

The refundable tax credits offer $5,000 to $7,500 per student to offset the cost of private school tuition and other educational expenses. The amount a family could receive depends on household earnings, and though there’s no maximum income limit, lower-earning families get a larger tax credit.

Little, if any, of the program’s $150 million budget would be left over if all 30,000 applicants qualify for even the lowest tax credit amount possible.

The total budget will rise to $200 million in 2025 and $250 million in 2026.

Families with a household income of $150,000 or less have priority consideration if they apply before Feb. 5. Outside of the priority group, the tax credits are available on a first-come-first-served basis, incentivizing applicants to submit their forms as quickly as possible.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission declined to provide Oklahoma Voice with any metrics this week on the total number of applications received and how many submissions came from the priority group.

The Tax Commission will use its internal records to check applicants’ household income. The agency contracted with a company, Merit International, to assist with verifying school enrollment documents, expense records and vendor applications while also managing the program’s online platform.

Stitt, a self-made millionaire, initially said his family would apply for the tax credits but . Critics of the program, especially Democrats in the state legislature, said Stitt’s comments illustrated their original fears that the tax credits would help only wealthy families whose children already attend private schools.

The governor called the program a “step towards true education freedom.”

“School choice should be for everyone, not just the rich,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on and .

Roughly 4,800 students are participating in the first semester of Arkansas’ new K-12 voucher program.

A bulk of those kids are attending the largest, mostly-religious private schools in the state. Of the 94 participating private schools, there are also a number focused on students with special needs.

The new data was reported in the Arkansas Department of Education’s to the state Legislature.

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“Arkansas’ Education Freedom Account program has only been around for a few months and already, it’s having a positive impact for kids in the state,” said Alexa Henning, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ communications director. “Nearly 5,000 students at almost 100 schools have enrolled in the program, offering families across Arkansas the chance to choose the school that best suits their individual needs and helping every student have access to a quality education.”

The EFA program was one of the primary components of the LEARNS Act; it was also the most controversial.

The program provides state funds for allowable educational expenses, primarily private school tuition this first year. Approximately $6,670 will be available per account for the 2023-2024 school year (Those who were participating in the Succeed Scholarship Program, which targeted primarily individuals with disabilities, received $7,413). The average cost of tuition at EFA schools is around $7,600, according to an Advocate analysis.

The Arkansas Department of Education allocated $46.7 million in state funds for the first year of the voucher program, but the report, which was submitted Saturday, projects the state will only expend about $32.5 million over the first year. So far, about $7 million has been spent.

This year, participation in the program is limited to certain students:

• Students with disabilities.
• Students experiencing homelessness.
• Foster children.
• Children of active duty military members.
• Students enrolled in an “F”-rated school or school in need of Level 5 support.
• Students enrolling in kindergarten for the first time.

The eligibility pool will be expanded over the coming two years until the program is open to all. The department said it has an opportunity in the next few years to deploy “a deliberate and systematic approach to EFA program participation, including, but not limited to, enacting a lottery system with prioritization for certain eligible special populations.”

The majority of students participating in the program this year, about 53%, are in Central Arkansas; another 16% are from Northwest Arkansas, according to the report.

Of those in the program, 44% of students have a disability and 31% are first-time kindergarteners. Less than 5% of students in the program were previously enrolled in a public school.

The third-party company that processes the payments between the state, families and schools has received $176,853 in processing fees so far — roughly 2.7% of the overall program costs.

Other program spending has been on uniform costs and other “required academic expenses.”

The report brought continued criticism from those opposed to vouchers and the LEARNS Act and praise from those who supported it.

Arkansas Education Association President April Reisma, a special education teacher in the Pulaski County Special School District, said the report should be “deeply disturbing to the tax-paying residents of Arkansas.”

“The department cloaks this funding as ‘School Choice’ and ‘Parental Empowerment,’” Reisma said. “To be clear, Arkansas already has school choice. Parents already have the power to choose the school that is best for their child. The guiding principles for the disbursement of these funds leave too many questions than answers. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to use these public funds to expand educational opportunity, high quality school options, use data to inform rulemaking, and ensure strong fiscal stewardship of public funds by investing in our current public schools with that public funding?”

Nicholas Horton, the founder and CEO of the conservative advocacy organization Opportunity Arkansas, wrote that the inaugural report showed the program was working.

“Arkansas is still early into its education freedom journey, but this initial data is very encouraging,” Horton said. “Although it comes as no surprise, it’s now even more clear that there’s a high demand for EFAs across the state – and this is just the beginning.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on and .