EDITORIAL: Opportunities for ESA input

Parents and school choice advocates wanted state Treasurer Dan Schwartz to move fast in settling the details of Nevada's new Education Savings Accounts, and he and his staff have done so — and then some.

A week after launching an early enrollment period for parents who want to move their children from public school to private school starting this school year, on Thursday Mr. Schwartz released the program's draft regulations.

The regulations, which can be accessed through the treasurer's website at http://www.nevadatreasurer.gov/SchoolChoice/Home/, spell out how the state will administer ESAs, distribute money to families and review educational expenses, among other details. It's vitally important than any parent who is interested in opening an ESA read these regulations. But it's just as important that any provider of educational services, from private schools to tutors to distance education programs, read the regulations, too. Under the draft regulations, those providers will be required to submit an application to the treasurer's office to be eligible to collect ESA funds.

For the uninitiated, the ESA program, signed into law by Gov. Brian Sandoval this year, is the country's most ambitious school choice initiative to date. The program allows parents to withdraw their children from public school and gain control of the state funding that supports the students' enrollment. Parents can then use that money — about $5,700 per year for students who are disabled or from low-income households, and about $5,100 per year for all other children — to pay for private school tuition, distance learning, tutoring, technology, special therapies or other educational expenses.

Parents or educational service providers who have concerns about the draft regulations, or comments on how they might be made better, have until 5 p.m. on Aug. 19 to submit them via email at nevadaschoolchoice@nevadatreasurer.gov. Mr. Schwartz will hold a public workshop on Friday, Aug. 21 to gather more input on the draft regulations. That meeting will be held at the Sawyer Building in downtown Las Vegas, Suite 4401. Those regulations are expected to be finalized sometime in September.

Parents who want to shift their children from public school to private school this year and use an ESA to subsidize tuition will have to move fast. Classes at some private schools start this week, and if a student attends a private school for even one day before an ESA application is submitted, that child will be ineligible for the account. To be eligible for an ESA, a student must be enrolled in a public school for 100 consecutive days. Enrollment in a public school last year counts toward eligibility. The treasurer's office reports it has received more than 700 applications so far — a number equivalent to the enrollment of an entire Las Vegas public elementary school.

Pay attention, parents. The process of establishing ESAs is moving quickly — just like you wanted.