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| Education Savings Accounts Deemed Constitutional |
| posted by: Ruthie | March 24, 2014, 05:26 PM |
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An ESA is an “education debit card,” enabling parents to use their ESA funds to pay for a variety of pre-approved educational services and providers, such as school tuition and fees, education therapy services, textbook, private online learning, and tutoring. ESAs can rollover from year to year, if unused, and can also be used in a college savings plans. Using this plan, parents and students can work together to build a program that meets their needs. “We found that with the ESA we have choices on where we can actually take our son. There weren’t those opportunities before,” says mother Katherine Visser, who customizes her son Jordan’s education with an ESA. In response to criticism that public dollars may be used in religious schools, the most recent court decision ruled that the “ESA is neutral in all respects toward religion and directs aid to a broad class of individuals without reference to religion.” The court also ruled that the money and funds follows the student and are not given directly to any particular institution, religious or otherwise. While it was originally limited to children with special needs, it expanded in 2012 to include children from low-income families in underperforming schools, children form active-duty military families, and children in foster care, making 220,000 Arizona children eligible for an ESA. Already, one-third of Arizona parents are using this innovative scholarship program, with an increasing number of states investigating similar programs. According to the 2014 AAE National Membership Survey, 72% of surveyed teachers support the policy. Marylyn Deyoung, who uses the program for her daughter Miranda to attend Gateway Academy, perfectly encapsulated the colossal merit of school choice policies stating, “You can live eight days without food, four days without water, but not one day without hope. And that’s what the scholarship brings.” What do you think of the ESA and similar school choice policies? Comment below.
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