Free Republic

School choice is a hot-button issue for local school districts, parents and students. Glenn Delk’s op-ed in The American Spectator asked, why aren’t the GOP presidential candidates joining the fray and supporting education savings accounts (also known by the acronym ESAs)? Education savings accounts allow low-income minority students to have access to better schools outside of their assigned school districts. They are education-specific savings accounts, through which taxpayers pay for vouchers for low-income students, and parents have the option to use the accounts to pay for books and tuition at private or public schools of their choice. Minorities in urban...

The Platte Institute, a non-profit research think tank based in Nebraska, released a report on how to better cater to America’s education needs. Their idea? Use education savings accounts, known as ESAs, or private scholarships to help children of poverty-stricken families to obtain a better quality of education. The report referred to the stark differences between college graduates and high school dropouts, where the unemployment rate is typically 11% for dropouts and 4% for college graduates. The report also pointed out how Nebraska is seeing rising poverty, where 1 out of every 3 Hispanic children under the age of 17...

While the Obama Administration hatched a plan to make community college free, the White House plotted a change in the tax treatment of savings accounts parents use to pay for their children’s college education. “During his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed taxing 529 college savings plans,” Alexander Hendrie of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) writes. “529 tax plans work by allowing families to deposit after tax funds into an account that then accumulates interest.” “When funds are withdrawn from the account to pay for college they are tax free.” These Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) allow parents to...

Education savings accounts, or ESA’s, are like scholarships, where 90% of what the state would pay per student would be given to parents in a bank account-like program. The parents can use the additional funds to pay for private school tuition or other education expenses, which in Arizona amounted to about $3,000 per pupil. The program was initially started as one to help special needs students, but was expanded to adopted children, children of military families and students from failing public schools. The Heritage Foundation’s recent panel, “Education Savings Accounts: The Future of School Choice,” featured a panel discussion of...

PHOENIX — Education-reform advocates won a key victory today, with a judge upholding the constitutionality of Arizona’s first-in-the-nation education savings accounts. The Maricopa County Superior Court rejected a legal challenge by the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona Education Association against the accounts, known formally as empowerment scholarship accounts (ESAs).   “Though this is only the opening round of a protracted legal battle, it is gratifying to start with a victory for the kids,” declared Clint Bolick, vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute, who argued on behalf of the Institute before Judge Maria Del Mar Verdin.  ...

November 3, 2005 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose On Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:00 a.m., the Committee on Science will hold a hearing to review the status of plans and programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will provide a comprehensive update on all facets of NASA's plans and programs. When Administrator Griffin last testified before the Committee four months ago, on June 28th, he described several reviews he had recently initiated, including: - the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) to define NASA's plans for returning to...