Virginia Lawmakers Consider Standards for Private School Coupon Schemes
Legislation anticipates federal voucher program
I wrote recently about Rhode Island legislators attempting to protect their state from Donald Trump’s federal private school coupon scheme.
News out of Virginia suggests lawmakers there are also attempting to set the stage to resist the potentially dangerous impacts of the federal voucher plan.
Specifically, HB359 sets forth standards for schools accepting funds from a voucher program.
In summary:
Establishes several requirements and conditions relating to the use of certain public funds enumerated in the bill to fund student tuition at private elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth, including (i) requiring all students enrolled at schools who receive such funds to take Standards of Learning assessments; (ii) requiring all such schools to receive accountability ratings from the Board of Education; and (iii) prohibiting such schools from discriminating in admissions, enrollment, discipline, retention, or access to educational programs and services on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, special education status, language proficiency, or socioeconomic status.
The bill anticipates the federal scheme in a number of provisions:
2. A federal voucher program, including any federal program that provides direct tuition payments or tuition subsidies for elementary or secondary students to enroll in a private school, to the extent permitted by federal law;
3. A scholarship-granting organization authorized under Virginia law that distributes tuition scholarships funded in whole or in part through state or federal tax credits or other tax-favored educational funding mechanisms;
4. An education savings account funded or subsidized through state or federal law, including any account or mechanism through which public funds, public subsidies, or public tax advantages are used to pay for private elementary or secondary education expenses, to the extent permitted by federal law;
5. Except in the case of excluded accounts, a tax credit scholarship or any other tax-favored educational funding mechanism
Trump and his allies may be trying to disrupt - and even end - public education. Still, state lawmakers and governors maintain significant sway over state education policy.
It’s encouraging to see some states stand strong behind public education and resist a dangerous Trump scheme.