State legislators of the United States are pressing to use more taxpayers to pay for registration of private schools and home education expenses, even when they try to discover how to budge at a time of economic uncertainty.
A coupon program of $ 1 billion per year Texas Legislature Sent to the governor last week and a long shooting impulse in Congress to expand the coupons nationwide, even the states that have rejected them, are focusing attention on the subject.
In states that already have programs to pay private education costs for most students, the expense has quickly engulfed more of their budgets as income growth has slowed or stagnant. In addition to Texas, Tennessee adopted a program this year and North Dakota He gave a serious consideration to one before a veto last week would probably end his prospects this year.
The states are required to produce annual expense plans that do not exceed what they bring. With the federal money of the Pandemia era, mostly gradually, coupons opponents fear that the programs come at the expense of other priorities, including public schools.
“Even if they are being financed by separate sources of income, it may seem that school choice programs and public schools compete for the same portion of an increasingly small cake,” said Page Forrest, who analyzes state finances in the group of non -partisan experts PEW.
Until five years ago, the most bold school choice programs were limited to low -income students and special necessary. More recently, scholarships and savings accounts financed by the State open to the majority or all families have been realized, especially in states controlled by Republicans.
This approach costs much more, at least in the short term. This is partly due to the fact that efforts studies in several states have found that most of the first students who register already attended private schools, and did not receive taxpayers subsidies before the launch of election programs.
In the next school year, coupons programs are expected to cost Florida taxpayers almost $ 3.9 billion, or around $ 1 in every $ 13 of the General State Revenue Fund. In Arizona, it is almost 5% of the general budget.
An analysis of Associated Press found that the costs in Iowa, Ohio and Oklahoma exceed 3% of the state general expenditure this year, or it is projected that they are in the next budget year.
Expenditure is a smaller part of the budget in states where scholarship programs are still increasing. Those include Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
TO Campaign money dilos Of the defenders of the coupons, it has been a key factor in convincing the previously resistant republican legislators to support the school’s choice plans, particularly because the defenders have requested more school options that leave the Covid pandemic.
The programs were approved last year In Alabama and Louisiana and this year In Tennesseewhere Republican governor Bill Lee said the $ 447 million program will be available for the next school year.
TO New Hampshire The bill raising income limits in an existing program has moved through the legislature.
On Thursday in Texas, legislators sent to the governor a bill that would assign more than $ 10,000 per year for students in accredited private schools. The cost would be limited to $ 1 billion in the 2026-27 school year, which is a little more than 1% of the general financing of the annual state. But by 2030, he found a legislative analysis, could cost $ 4.5 billion a year. That could be partially compensated for a little more than $ 800 million in savings, because there would be fewer public school students to subsidize.
The Texas Chamber also approved an impulse of almost $ 8 billion to the public education system, which according to defenders does not cover additional expenses due to inflation.
In Norte Dakota dependent on energy, the governor of the Republican Party Kelly Armstrong vetoed an educational savings account program, saying that it would not expand the options for all students and that there were implementation problems. Since then, he said that the concept is still a priority for him.
Erin Oban, a North Dakotans organizer for public schools, said that the costs and unknowns of the State’s financial perspective make it a bad time to start a coupons program.
“I think it would be a very long -term challenge to finance something in the short term that you think could be a good idea or that we can somehow pay right now,” he said.
Congress Republicans seek to extend a variety of tax cuts approved in the President Donald Trump’s First term, more promulgate new tax cuts for overtime, tips and social security benefits. The proponents of the school’s choice will face a tough competition when it comes to being included in that mixture.
In Ohio, under a budget proposed by the Republicans of the House of Representatives, the coupons would see a greater increase in funds than public schools from July 2026. The plan, which was approved this month, also requires a way for the State to recover money from property taxes already collected by school districts.
Democratic state representative, the bride, Rose Sweeney, said she has no problem with coupons, provided that public schools are fully financed. But she says that the budget plan is not enough.
It would also continue to increase the amount available for scholarships to private schools, even for the first time to make a part of them available for institutions that operate without any state supervision.
“Ninety percent of Ohio’s children are still in public schools,” Sweeney said. “They are increasing even more in coupons and still do not give public schools what they need, although that is where most of the money comes from.”
Rachel Brady, mother of four children in Wake Forest, North Carolina, was a leader in a successful impulse last year for legislators to completely finance scholarships after one of their children, and thousands of people, put themselves on a waiting list after the initial assignment was exhausted.
Legislators should seek to reduce costs in other places if necessary to keep the programs running, he said.
The governor of North Carolina, Josh Stein, like Katie Hobbs of Arizona, another Democratic governor, has proposed to reduce the scholarships. But there is no indications that the legislatures controlled by the Republican party pump the brakes in any of the states.
The budget advanced this month through the North Carolina house includes scholarship funds and a smaller increase for public school teachers that Stein proposed.
“This is a great investment in the future of our children,” Brady said. “They are giving them what they need to succeed in life. I can’t think of a better way to invest in the future of our state.”
___
Associated Press Collin Binkley writers Jack, Kevin Freking and Nadia Lathan contributed.
