Education savings accounts are the fastest growing form of school choice, but they’re still rare enough that few people understand them. Here are answers to some common questions.
What is an ESA?
With ESAs, the government puts funds into an account that parents can spend toward a variety of educational needs, often including private school tuition, tutoring, educational therapy and textbooks. Sometimes the funds are equal to the student’s entire per-pupil spending, but other times it is only a portion. ESAs are typically state-level programs, so funding levels and allowable uses vary by state.
Aren’t those like school vouchers?
ESAs are similar to, but more flexible than, school vouchers, since the accounts can be used on expenses aside from tuition. Take Arizona, for example: “What we’re giving parents is an account of money that they control, and they decide where the money is spent,” Matthew Ladner, the senior advisor of policy and research at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, said Wednesday at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “There’s no requirement that they go to a private or religious school. Whereas that was the only way a school voucher program could be used.”
Which states have ESAs?
Five states have passed ESA programs into law: Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, and Tennessee. Nevada is the only state where the program is nearly universal, with 96 percent of Nevada children eligible. All the other states restrict eligibility to either special needs students or students assigned to failing traditional public schools.
Are they constitutional?
So far, yes. As Ladner mentioned, ESAs don’t require students to use a private or religious school like school vouchers do. As such, it’s easier for the programs to be ruled in compliance with Blaine Amendments that often prove the constitutional downfall of school voucher programs. The amendments spread amongst anti-Catholic sentiment starting in the 1870s. Thirty-seven states have these amendments, which prohibit state funds from going to religious schools. In Arizona, the state Supreme Court actually ruled that ESAs are constitutional under Blaine Amendments, but that school voucher programs are not.
Two lawsuits are challenging the Nevada program.
Who opposes ESAs?
Teachers’ unions, and some groups affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union. Most teachers’ unions members are in traditional public schools, so they oppose ESAs, since they allow a student to take their per-pupil funding outside the traditional public school system. If enough students use the program to leave traditional public schools, that means fewer public school teachers are needed and less money will eventually be paid in union dues.
The ACLU groups oppose the program on separation of church and state grounds, but so far haven’t been able to get that argument to stand up in court. When used, vouchers almost require taxpayer funds to go to religious schools, since most private schools are religious. But ESAs can be used on many more purposes than private school tuition, so it’s more difficult to make the argument that they require public funds to go toward religious institutions.
Do ESAs work?
It’s a little early to know if ESAs work empirically, but stories from the ground suggest they do. Allysia Finley, who works for the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, interviewed families who have been using ESAs. At AEI Wednesday, Finley told the story of a hyperlexic, autistic student from Arizona. The student’s family has been using an ESA since 2012 to educate him at different times in private schools or homeschooling with tutoring help. “Instead of just being in a classroom, where one instructor kind of has to move everyone along at the same pace and there isn’t much individualized or customized instruction,” Finley said. “They’re able to spend a little more time on certain areas or speed along on others, and also focus on areas he really likes.”
Are ESAs popular?
The following result comes from a poll sponsored by the pro-school choice Friedman Foundation, so take it with the appropriate grain of salt. Sixty-two percent of Americans say they support an education savings account system, with 28 percent opposed. The strongest support comes from young adults, low-income earners and parents of school-aged children.
Since ESAs are not well known, the survey had to define them for respondents. Here is the question wording: “An ‘education savings account,’ — often called an ‘ESA’ — allows parents to take their child out of a public district or charter school, and receive a payment into a government-authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple uses. Parents can then use these funds to pay for private school tuition, virtual education programs, private tutoring or saving for future college expenses. In general, do you favor or oppose this kind of ‘savings account system’?”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
