COVID-19’s effect on school operations has exacerbated long-existing problems of access to education and, with them, introduced a share of new cost burdens on families. A bill advanced by a bipartisan House coalition on Tuesday would work to counter those issues and offer low-income families a better chance at salvaging this school year.
The School Choice Now Act would direct a share of coronavirus relief funds to provide nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations, or SGOs, with emergency education freedom grants. The bill would also amend the tax code and create a new credit for those donating to SGOs in order to encourage contributions.
If it wasn’t clear before this week’s convention, Republicans proudly carry the torch on school choice, believing in its ability to help those burdened by poverty and to combat COVID-19’s educational harms. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who first introduced the School Choice Now Act in the Senate in July, said in his Monday speech at the Republican National Convention, “A quality education is the closest thing to magic in America.” Scott affirmed Republicans’ commitment “to make sure that every child in every neighborhood has a quality education,” continuing, “When a parent has a choice, their kid has a better chance.”
The bill would not only help children and families; it would help prop up private schools and particularly parochial schools, which serve many low-income and minority communities and have suffered uniquely from the pandemic. More than a hundred Catholic schools will not reopen this fall, according to the National Catholic Register, as COVID-19 has broadened financial strains. Emergency grants would sustain, if not encourage, enrollment in these schools and empower children to keep on learning.
States are doing their own part to help families respond to the pandemic’s educational challenges and provide for private schools. Legislators in Pennsylvania have pushed for education scholarship accounts for low-income families. The grants would provide $1,000 spending accounts for families to spend on tuition, tutoring, supplies, and technology for their students.
Private schools are critical to education infrastructure. The School Choice Now Act recognizes that and recognizes the importance of supporting children who are at risk of losing out on important learning. It should become law.
