Early this month Governor Brian Sandoval (R-NV) signed a law creating Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for nearly all Nevada students. As I recently wrote, Nevada now becomes the new frontier for school choice because, unlike similar programs elsewhere, almost all Nevada students will be eligible for ESAs. Unfortunately, the ineligible minority exists and that leaves families, schools and the state with unenviable uncertainties.
The ESAs will give public school families 90% of the state’s share of per pupil spending, roughly $5,100. Disabled students and those from low-income families will receive 100%, or $5,700. This leaves a portion of state aid and all local and federal education funding unaffected, so districts actually receive more funding per pupil if students leave. This funds ESAs by re-routing existing revenues, making it cost neutral and politically viable. Everybody wins — almost. Nevada students not enrolled in public schools are ineligible.
In a perfect world, Sandoval would have made ESAs available to all Nevada students. But, after raising taxes and making other “temporary” taxes permanent in order to pass a budget with record K-12 spending increases, the ESA bill could only pass if it was cost-neutral. Expanding eligibility to the 35,000 (7%) Nevada students not enrolled in public schools would require over $180M in new revenue, because the state currently spends nothing on those students. That represents a 17% increase in state education funding and a 5% increase in total state spending. Faced with insurmountable constraints, Sandoval chose to not make perfect the enemy of the good, and passed a good and nearly universal ESA bill.
The bill’s imperfections remain, however, and pose unenviable decisions for parents of ineligible students. For instance, a family scraping to make private school tuition for their two kids in 3rd and 5th grade can choose either to continue to scrape, or to put their kids in the public system for 100 days, meet the standards for eligibility, and then return them to their private school. Gaming the system like this seems bad for kids and bad form, but these ESAs provide powerful incentives to do so. If this family’s annual income were at the Nevada median of roughly $60,000, two ESAs valued at $10,200 would equal a 17% increase in income; for low-income families, the ESAs would represent an increase of 25% or more. Over time, the ESA’s cumulative value for such a family would be $75,000, too much money for parents to blithely ignore.
Cumulatively, ineligible Nevada families’ decisions can create uncertainties for schools. Public schools may see an influx of short-term transfers who only stay for 100 days to qualify for ESA eligibility. Private schools face the burden of dealing with short-term absences from students of committed families. These transfers will result in near-term net losses for students and the schools they transfer between. Private and public schools may face a tumultuous year with churning student bodies. Students forced to transfer twice in a year will undoubtedly suffer socially and academically. Forced to leave their private school of choice to gain eligibility, students’ private school seats may not be available when they return with ESAs in hand. Families who homeschool face similar decisions if they want to access ESAs.
In the long run, whether ESAs will be cost neutral is also uncertain. The amount of money involved — which some have argued is not sufficient — creates incredibly strong incentives for families to enroll in public schools for 100 days, take the money and run. Families with children just reaching school age have the most years of ESA eligibility, the greatest incentives, and pose the greatest long term increases for state K-12 spending. Each family that does will cost the state over $5,000 in additional annual revenue. Only time will tell how many parents will jump through the hoops of ESA eligibility, but it is hard to imagine the ESA program will be cost-neutral in the long run. In the short run, the families of ineligible students are faced with decisions to no parents want to make.
from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1GyccuE
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment