Make Education Savings Accounts as inclusive as possible — right away

Before Nevada parents can take advantage of the country’s strongest school choice law, state officials must settle an important question: Did lawmakers intend to give families educational options now or a year from now?

A Friday public workshop on the state’s groundbreaking Education Savings Accounts, the most significant school reform to come out of the 2015 Legislature, will go a long way toward answering that question. Southern Nevada parents who want to take advantage of improved school choice sooner rather than later should plan to attend the workshop and say as much via videoconference at 9 a.m. at the Grant Sawyer Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 4401.

Parents who choose to open an Education Savings Account will be allowed to withdraw their children from public schools and gain control of the state funding that supported their enrollment -- up to $5,700 per year. That funding can be used to pay for private school tuition, distance learning, tutoring, technology, therapies and other expenses in support of the student’s education.

Unlike ESAs in a few other states, which can be opened only for students who are disabled, enrolled at low-performing schools or from low-income or military households, Nevada’s ESAs will be available to nearly all families.

The critical requirement -- the one that will determine whether many families can open ESAs in January, when enrollment in the program is expected to start -- limits eligibility to students who have been enrolled in public school for at least 100 school days. The question is when, exactly, that 100-day clock starts. Friday’s workshop is a first step in formalizing the regulations that will settle the issue.

Students who were enrolled in public school for the 2014-15 school year and have enrolled or want to enroll in a private school for the 2015-16 school year might be eligible for ESAs. Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, sponsored Senate Bill 302, which became the ESA law. He said the legislation was intended to empower parents right away and get their children into better educational environments starting this year, even though the first ESA distributions won’t happen until next spring at the soonest.

State Treasurer Dan Schwartz, whose office will administer ESAs, has honored that intent by proposing a one-time exemption for eligibility: Any student who was enrolled in a Nevada public or charter school for at least 100 consecutive school days anytime during the 2014-15 school year would be allowed to apply for an ESA. Mr. Schwartz has proposed quarterly enrollment periods for ESAs, and this exemption would be in effect only during the first enrollment period, from Jan. 4 to Feb. 29.

This is a good recommendation. The alternative is to require a family to enroll a child in a public school for the 2015-16 academic year, then apply for an ESA well after winter break. This interpretation of the 100-day requirement in SB302 makes no sense. It would be very difficult for any family to place a child in a private school or alternative education program so late in the school year. It would be impossible for hundreds or thousands of families to do so all at once.

After Friday’s public workshop, the proposed regulations will be reviewed by the Legislative Counsel Bureau and subjected to a public hearing, likely in August or September, according to the treasurer’s office. The Legislative Commission, an interim panel of 12 state lawmakers, must give final approval. If the exemption isn’t included in the final ESA regulations, a great many families who want to get their children out of public school right now will be excluded from a program that was intended to be inclusive.

ESA opponents will argue that such an exemption benefits only upper-income families, who can afford private school tuition payments until ESA funds are made available in 2016. But how many families would make sacrifices right away if they knew help was coming? For too long, Nevadans have tolerated underperforming schools and waited for meaningful school choice. They shouldn’t have to put up with the status quo for one more year.

Anyone who is interested in ESAs should attend Friday’s workshop and ask for a regulatory structure that makes special accommodations for the program’s launch, not one that needlessly hinders participation. And the public should demand clarity on language in SB302 that says ESAs can’t be used for home schooling but -- wink, wink -- allow parents the independence to function as a “participating entity.”

For more information on ESAs in advance of Friday’s meeting, parents and taxpayers can visit the treasurer’s school choice web page: http://www.nevadatreasurer.gov/SchoolChoice/Home/

Additionally, the Nevada Policy Research Institute will co-host an informational meeting on ESAs on Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. at Mountain View Christian Schools, 3900 E. Bonanza Road. Sen. Hammond will speak at the event.

School choice can’t come to Nevada soon enough.