Research & Commentary: Delaware Education Savings Account Bill

Published June 16, 2016

State lawmakers in Delaware are considering a proposal to create the Parent Empowerment Education Savings Account Program. This program would provide to children with special needs and disabilities an education savings account (ESA) that could be used to help pay for educational options that may better suit their individual needs.

The proposal would provide parents with up to 100 percent of the per-pupil state funds that would have gone to the child’s public school district for use for tuition and fees at any private school participating in the program, as well as for textbooks, tutors, and online learning programs. Any leftover funds could be saved and used to pay for college tuition. The student must have attended a public school during the previous school year upon setting up an ESA account, and parents must reauthorize their account annually.

Only 37 percent of Delaware 4th graders and 30 percent of 8th graders tested “proficient” in math on the 2015 National Association of Education Progress (NAEP) test, also known as the Nation’s Report Card. Only 37 percent of 4th graders and 31 percent of 8th graders tested proficient in reading. These results show Delaware’s public school system is failing to educate roughly six out of 10 4th grade and seven out of 10 8th grade students to a proficient level in reading and mathematics, respectively.

Delaware’s sub-standard performance on NAEP underscores the desperate need for the state to expand school choice opportunities far beyond what is currently available. Too many public schools in Delaware are failing to adequately prepare students for productive lives. Parents should be allowed to choose the schools their children attend and should not be penalized financially if that choice is a private religious or secular school.

“ESAs are about empowering parents and improving the range of educational options for children,” Renee Porter, executive director of Choice Matterstold The Heartland Institute’s School Reform News. “All children are different and learn differently. Some children have disabilities that require special attention. Other children are so advanced that their time in the classroom isn’t really benefitting them. It’s unrealistic, and quite frankly unfair, to expect every public school to provide for the exact needs of every student. That’s why it’s important to give parents options like charter schools, private schools, and virtual schools.”

Not only are education choice options good policy, they are also broadly popular. Polling conducted in Delaware by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice in August 2014 shows 59 percent of registered voters support the creation of an ESA program, 54 percent believe the state’s public school system performs just “poorly” or “fairly,” and 88 percent said they would prefer private, charter, or homeschooling for their children over traditional public schools. 

As John E. Stapleton of the Caesar Rodney Institute noted at the time the survey was released, “Voters want parents to have educational choice for their children – regardless of income or place of residence. It is clear to concerned parents that an effective education in this ‘human capital’ driven modern economy is the cornerstone to their children’s future.”

While providing ESAs for students with special needs would be a great step forward for Delaware, the passage of a universal ESA bill would be ideal and go a long way toward remedying Delaware’s lackluster record of failing to educate its children. The goal should be to allow every parent to choose, require every school to compete, and give every child an opportunity to attend a quality school.

The following documents provide more information about education savings accounts and school choice.

Ten Principles of School Choice
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/ten-principles-school-choice
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 school vouchers are constitutional, grassroots activists around the country have been organizing to support passage of school choice programs. Legislatures passed statewide programs in Colorado and Florida, and other states are expected to follow their lead. At least 35 cities have privately funded voucher programs. This booklet from The Heartland Institute provides policymakers and civic and business leaders a highly condensed and easy-to-read guide to the debate. It presents the 10 most important principles of the school choice movement, explaining each principle in plain and precise language. It also contains an extensive bibliography for further research, including many links to documents available on the Internet and a directory of the websites of national organizations that support school choice.

A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Choice (Fourth Edition)
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/win-win-solution-empirical-evidence-school-choice-fourth-edition
This paper by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice details how a vast body of research shows educational choice programs improve academic outcomes for students and schools, saves taxpayers money, reduces segregation in schools, and improves students’ civic values. This edition brings together a total of 100 empirical studies examining these essential questions in one comprehensive report.

The ABCs of School Choice – 2016 Edition
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/abcs-school-choice-2016-edition
The ABCs of School Choice, produced by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, is a comprehensive, data-rich guide to every private school choice program in America. This annually updated publication may not reflect developments past January 25, 2016.

Delaware K–12 and School Choice Survey
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/delaware-k-12-and-school-choice-survey
The Delaware K–12 and School Choice Survey project, commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by Braun Research, Inc., measured Delaware registered voters’ familiarity and views on a range of K–12 education topics and school choice reforms.

The Fiscal Effects of School Choice Programs on Public School Districts
http://news.heartland.org/policy-documents/fiscal-effects-school-choice-programs-public-school-districts
This report by Benjamin Scafidi is the first-ever study of public school districts’ fixed costs in every state and the District of Columbia. Scafidi concludes approximately 36 percent of school district spending cannot be quickly reduced when students leave a school to enroll elsewhere. Scafidi finds the remaining 64 percent, or approximately $8,000 per student on average nationally, are variable costs that change directly with student enrollment. This means a school choice program attaching less than $8,000 to each child who leaves a public school for a private school leaves the district with more money to spend on each remaining child. Scafidi says in the long run, all local district spending is variable, meaning all funds could be attached to individual children over time without creating fiscal disasters for government schools.

How School Choice Programs Can Save Money 
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/wm727.cfm 
This Heritage Foundation study of the fiscal impact of voucher programs notes Washington, DC vouchers cost only 60 percent of what the city spends per pupil in government schools. The study estimates if the states with the top eight education expenditures per pupil adopted voucher programs similar to the one in Washington, DC, they could save a combined $2.6 billion per year.

How School Choice Can Create Jobs
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/how-school-choice-can-create-jobs
Examining five South Carolina counties, Sven R. Larson found school choice programs were associated with gains of up to 25 percent in youth self-employment. Larson writes, “School Choice raises academic achievement and reduces the problems and costs associated with high school dropouts. But it also has a decisively positive impact on youth entrepreneurship and could provide a critical boost for the economies of poor, rural counties.”

Taking Credit for Education: How to Fund Education Savings Accounts Through Tax Credits
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/taking-credit-education-how-fund-education-savings-accounts-through-tax-credits
This paper from the Cato Institute explains how legislators can design an education savings account (ESA) program that is privately funded through tax-credit-eligible contributions from taxpayers, which is similar to models used in many tax-credit scholarship programs around the country. Tax-credit-funded ESAs would empower families with more educational options while enhancing accountability and refraining from coercing anyone into supporting ideas they oppose. Because they are funded through voluntary contributions rather than public funds, tax-credit scholarships have a perfect record of constitutionality at the U.S. Supreme Court and at every state supreme court that has considered the issue. In states that have adopted a Blaine amendment, tax-credit ESAs could be a lifeline to families in need.

Pursuing Innovation: How Can Education Choice Transform K–12 Education in the U.S.?
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/pursuing-innovation-how-can-education-choice-transform-k-12-education-us
This report by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice summarizes the state of competition in U.S. K–12 education. It pays particular attention to the prevalence and market penetration of charter schools, private school vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships. The effect of competition from charters, vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships on the performance of traditional district schools and education funding is examined using a survey of recent high-quality research on that topic. These summaries and analyses suggest enhancing educational competition using school choice programs would likely improve the productivity of district schools, subject to the effective design of school choice policies.

The Legal Landscape of Parental-Choice Policy
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/legal-landscape-parental-choice-policy
The U.S. Supreme Court decision Zelman v. Simmons-Harris cleared away the most significant obstacle to the expansion of private school choice programs by ruling the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause does not preclude faith-based schools from participating in private school choice programs. Other important legal questions fall into four categories: the scope of students’ right to an education and parents’ right to choose their children’s schools; state-constitutional obstacles to private school choice; the effect of laws governing racial integration and the inclusion of disabled students; and the religious-liberty implications of faith-based schools participating in such programs. This report from the American Enterprise Institute notes the lack of clarity on these questions poses challenges, but the report says they also create opportunities for proponents of private school choice to scale existing programs and expand program options.

A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers
https://heartland.org/policy-documents/win-win-solution-empirical-evidence-school-vouchers 
Greg Forster of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice collected the results of all available empirical studies that use the best available scientific methods to measure how school choice vouchers affect academic outcomes for participants and all available studies on how vouchers affect outcomes in public schools. Contrary to the widespread claim vouchers do not benefit participants and that they hurt public schools, the empirical evidence consistently shows vouchers improve outcomes for participants and those who remain in public schools.

 

Nothing in this Research & Commentary is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of The Heartland Institute. For further information on this subject, visit School Reform News at http://news.heartland.org/education, The Heartland Institute’s website at http://heartland.org, and PolicyBot, Heartland’s free online research database, at www.policybot.org.

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