Educational Savings Accounts : Parents Taking Control of Out Comes

Innovation in education, as with most everything else that requires problem solving, will bring solutions that work. All that is required is the will to accept the primes that a problem exists and then move to solve it.

The fact that these two states have moved to remedy the problem of a public educational system that is failing the students, and the community, is not lost in the clutter of media bias and school boards that are invested in political correctness and fear of union retaliation.

Whoa, who knew? Florida and Arizona are controlled by Conservatives and therefore believe they have an obligation to serve the public for which  they were elected. What a novel concept in our country that sees so many states that are headed to bankruptcy because they are not dedicated to serving the public need, but in fact using and abusing the public for political gain.

It must be just a coincidence that most of the failing states in our country are in the clutches of progressive socialist democrats. But then maybe not.  hmmmm  What a good reason to vote for more democrats, right?

Experimenting with ESAs in Florida and Arizona
Source: Brittany Corona, "These Lucky Parents Get To Control Their Kids' State Education Money," Federalist, September 9, 2014.

September 11, 2014

Despite increased spending on public education, American students perform no better than did their counterparts in the 1970s. Just 26 percent of high school seniors rank as proficient in math, and just 38 do so in reading. Compared to students in other countries, American schoolchildren are far from outstanding, with middling test scores.

This lack of academic success has corresponded with growing centralization of education and a distancing of parents from educational decisions. The idea behind school choice is to provide children and parents with greater control and educational options, creating better matches between students and educational providers and services. As such, two states are currently experimenting with a relatively new school choice tool: Education Savings Accounts.

Brittany Corona, research assistant at the Heritage Foundation, explains how Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) work. The first iteration of the accounts came in 2011, when Arizona gave eligible parents a deposit equivalent to 90 percent of the funds that the state would have spent on the child. The Arizona program works as follows:

• The typical child receives $3,000 per year in his ESA. The amount is higher for children with special needs, ranging from $10,400 to $26,000.
• The funds are loaded onto a debit card (use of which is restricted), which parents can use for a variety of services.
• Some parents use the funds to pay for private school tuition, while others use them for tutoring, textbooks, curriculum or online classes. Some use the cards to pay for individual courses for their children or for educational therapies.
• Eligibility for ESAs has been expanded in Arizona and now includes children with special needs, those enrolled in bad schools, children of active-duty military or of fallen soldiers and children in foster care.

Parents have used these funds to customize education for their children, many of whom have seen their children blossom after years of struggling in the one-size-fits-all public education system.
Following Arizona's lead, the state of Florida enacted ESAs in June 2014. Already, the state has seen 3,000 applications for the program and has given scholarship funds to 641 students.