This is the sixth post in a series covering the advance of educational choice legislation across the country this year. As of my last update in early July, there were 17 new or expanded choice programs in 14 states. On Friday, North Carolina lawmakers finally passed a long-overdue budget that expanded the state’s two school voucher programs for low-income and special-needs students, bringing the total number to 19 new or expanded programs in 15 states. The updated tally is below.
A lawsuit against the Tar Heel State’s voucher law impeded implementation so only 1,216 low-income students participated last year, barely 10 percent of the 12,000+ applications the state received. In July, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the program, clearing the way for the legislature to expand it.
Meanwhile, opponents of educational choice have launched a second legal attack on Nevada’s new education savings account law. Last month, the ACLU filed a similar lawsuit. The state of Nevada has hired one of the top law firms in the nation to help defend the ESA program. In addition, the Institute for Justice will be defending the law against both challenges on behalf five families who would benefit from the ESAs. You can learn about their stories in this short video:
In other school choice news, Indiana is poised to surpass Wisconsin as the state with the most students receiving school vouchers with more than 33,000 students. However, that number is dwarfed by the nearly 70,000 students who received tax-credit scholarships in Florida during the last school year.
And speaking of tax credits, a new poll from Quinnipiac University finds that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s most popular education proposals were the personal-use and scholarship tax credits that he unsuccessfully pushed this year. More than half of respondents–including 62 percent of Millennials–supported tax credits for donations to private schools (though the question should have asked about donations to nonprofit scholarship organizations, which was Cuomo’s actual proposal).
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Additionally, 65 percent of respondents–including 72 percent of Millennials and 70 percent of respondents ages 35-49–voiced support for a $500 state income tax credit for low- and middle-income parents to pay private school tuition.
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Updated tally for new and expanded choice programs in 2015:
New Educational Choice Programs (7 in 6 states)
Expanded Educational Choice Programs (12 in 9 states)
Like North Carolina, Pennsylvania lawmakers have been embroiled in a budget battle all summer. Early proposals included expansions of the states two tax-credit scholarship programs, but it is unclear what the final budget will contain.
This article first appeared on Cato at Liberty.
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