A Preview for Tomorrow: Vouchers, Vouchers, Vouchers
In the Senate Education committee tomorrow, we will hear three bills that are expansions to the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
SB 1131 would expand eligibility to a child whose parent is a veteran, a first responder, or a health professional.
SB 1657 expands eligibility for an ESA to many types of students. Children of veterans, first responders, and health care workers, students with low income (defined in various ways, including eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch or using SNAP or TANF), children who live within the attendance boundaries of a school with community eligibility for free and reduced price lunch. A child who lives within the boundary of a district that requested SFB funds for new construction. It also increases the maximum aggregate total for STO scholarships, eliminates the cap on maximum scholarship amount, and more.
SB 1707 allows a student who received a grant under the COVID-19 educational recovery benefit program prior to June 30, 2022 to be permanently eligible to receive an ESA. This program was created via Executive Order over the summer to provide $7,000 grants to families whose students were in schools requiring masks or quarantining after an exposure, to allow them to school their child in an alternate fashion.