EDITORIAL: Implementing ESAs

The new law that launched Nevada’s Education Savings Accounts is still the buzz of the country’s school choice movement, but the job of getting the accounts open for parents is just getting started.

The state treasurer’s office, not the Department of Education, will administer the program. Treasurer Dan Schwartz has tasked five senior staffers to write the regulations governing the ESAs, which will allow parents to withdraw their children from public school and gain control of the state funding that supported their enrollment. Under Senate Bill 302, parents can use that money — more than $5,000 per student — to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, therapies, technology and other educational expenses.

So how will they apply for the accounts? And how will the treasurer’s office verify eligibility, distribute the money and prevent fraudulent spending? Parents are eager to know because they have just a few weeks left to make decisions about where to enroll their children for the upcoming school year — and that enrollment could affect their child’s eligibility for an ESA. Do students need to be enrolled in public school on Jan. 1 to be eligible, or can they exit the public school system now if they were enrolled for 100 school days in the winter and spring?

We urge the treasurer’s office to issue clear eligibility guidelines by next month, so that parents can plan accordingly. And we’d like the regulation writing process to be as transparent as possible.

“Our team is committed to developing a quality program that avoids the mistakes of the Nevada Health Link. … I want to see these accounts funded as soon as possible, but we must ensure processes are in place to make enrolling simple and payment fair and devoid of fraud,” Mr. Schwartz said this week through a news release.

Good. Nevada’s ESAs have set a new national standard for school choice. If the program is bogged down by technology failures, enrollment errors or fraud, it could derail efforts to institute ESAs in other states — and erode support for Nevada’s program. Here’s hoping the official launch of ESAs and their use draw the same raves the legislation received.