While we have been fortunate to kill some bad legislation, there are several bad pieces of legislation alive that concern all of us at ND United.
Among them is SB 2400, which is a voucher scheme designed as an “education savings account,” or ESA.
If enacted, this legislation will divert money raised for public education and other public purposes to pay for private school tuition and other “qualified educational expenses.”
Those expenses would include non-public school tuition, summer education camps, afterschool tutoring, school meals, standardized test fees, tuition and fees for nonpublic school online education programs, behavioral health services, etc. Our issue with SB 2400 is twofold:
First, the bill allows private school tuition to be paid for with public dollars. We know that 68 percent of North Dakotans do not approve of using public funds for private school tuition. Supporters of the bill know it, too. That is why they’ve included the “qualified educational expenses” to the bill.
Both public and private school students will have access to funds to pay for those educational enhancements.
Which leads us to the second point that makes this bill unacceptable. SB 2400 does not treat public-school families and private-school families equally.
Under this bill, as passed by the Senate, public school students are eligible to receive an ESA payment of $500. It’s the same amount if the student is home-schooled.
If, however, you are a private school student, your allotment is $3,500 if your household income is at or less than 300% of poverty income guidelines, and $2,000 if the student’s household income is at or less than 500% of poverty income guidelines.
Until the bill was amended, those amounts were $500 higher for each category. The bill’s author has indicated that she will ask the House to restore the cuts made in the Senate. If this bill were to pass as amended, it would cost $58,119,000 plus another $3 million to administer this new, big government program for just one academic year!
If the author of SB 2400 gets her way and restores the money she originally proposed, the cost of this big government program balloons to around $100 million per academic year.
Folks, we need you to be in the ear of your House legislators when they consider SB 2400.
We also need you to join North Dakotans for Public Schools. ND4PS is bringing together educators, parents, school boards and concerned citizens to bring to the fore the critical role public schools play in shaping the future of North Dakota’s children and communities.
Also, please consider joining us on our Legislative Update Zoom call every other Tuesday during the session.
