Riding the so-called “parental rights” movement, more Republican-led states are changing the way they fund K-12 education, making it easier for families to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools.
Families in Iowa, Utah and Arkansas will soon be eligible for thousands of state dollars each year to send their children to private K-12 schools after new legislation was passed during the first three months of this year.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed a sweeping education bill – which also provides raises to public school teachers – into law less than two months after being sworn into office.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds finally succeeded in getting a school-choice policy passed after several attempts over the years.
“Parents, not the government, can now choose the education setting best suited to their child regardless of their income or zip code,” Reynolds said in a statement following the bill’s passage.
Similar school-choice programs aimed at making it easier for all families to choose what school to send their children to could be on the horizon.
Republican lawmakers in at least 32 states so far this year have proposed legislation to create or expand tax-funded programs to help parents cover the cost of private education, according to FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
School-choice programs are not new and are often politically contentious. Many states already have voucher, scholarship or savings accounts programs that steer taxpayer money to families sending their kids to private schools.
But now, as a push for parental empowerment has become a key part of the Republican agenda – touching on everything from banning certain books to restricting instruction on sexual orientation and gender…
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