Want to See Seattle Schools Really Suffer? Allow School Vouchers to Happen

I have warned you about the growing numbers of states that have passed school voucher laws. There is a bill coming to the Legislature for school vouchers. Here's the story from the Tri-Cities:

Washington state Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, has introduced legislation to create scholarships for students via Education Savings Accounts, commonly called ESAs.

 House Bill 1140, co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, would specifically fund ESAs for low-income students, special needs families and students trapped in failing schools.

“We’ve got a huge problem, and it’s not like having ESAs or other choices will solve that overnight, but we need to have competition in the system,” Couture noted.

That last category is so vague you could drive a Mack truck through it. As for "special-needs" students, I'd have to see more specifics to understand exactly who Rep. Courture means. And competition? We see how our healthcare system has benefited from competition.

According to a news release emailed to The Center Square, “The funds would be available via a state-issued debit card, with oversight capability. The money would have to be spent on education, including tuition, fees, textbooks, tutoring, therapies and more.”

I'm in Arizona and we were promised there would be oversight and guess what? It practically doesn't exist. It is completely ridiculous to send out public dollars willy-nilly and not care about the outcomes.

And where would the money come from?

 "The Legislature could decide to appropriate funding for ESAs, but even if they did not allocate any money for it, we’ve established a B&O [business and occupation] tax credit where business owners can decide to contribute a portion of their B&O tax to the general fund or to ESA’s,” Couture said.

Did I mention how the universal school voucher program in Arizona is hurting the state budget? Yup. 

It is fairly unlikely for Washington State to get vouchers anytime soon but the push is on. What's interesting is that the one big state that can't get a law passed is Texas. Yes, I know, they have Greg Abbott for governor and their legislature is very red.

Texas has 133 rural counties which is just over 50% of all Texas counties. Washington State has 39 counties; 30 of them are rural but those counties only make up just over 19% of the state population. For Texas, their rural counties make up just 15% of their population.

Why do I bring this up? Because the big reason that Abbott can't get his voucher bill through is because of the legislators in those rural counties who know - for a fact - that their students, especially low-income students, live in places with zero private schools and probably near zero charter schools. 

If you are selling a bill on the promise it will help low-income students, it better be doing that. And, those rural legislators know that the voucher system will weaken their public schools. So it's no sale there. 

 If you want to advocate for or against a bill, this is the state legislature's page with links to email or message your representative, note your position for the record ahead of a committee hearing (you'll hear this referred to as "signing in pro" or "signing in con"), submit written testimony to a committee, or testify in a committee hearing either in person or via Zoom. 

An even bigger threat is a federal law for vouchers via the "Educational Choice for Children Act of 2024." From the Curmudguacation blog by Peter Greene:

ECCA proposes an education savings account voucher funded with tax credits. ESAs are super-vouchers that simply hand parents a stack of money and tell them to go spend it on education-flavored stuff. ESAs are in place in many states, and they have provided some serious oversight problems; State-level ESAs have been used for surfboards, televisions, theme park tickets, cosmetics, clothes, horseback riding lessons, and $1 million on Lego sets.

ECCA vouchers would be funded by contributions from wealthy folks who are looking for a tax shelter and investment opportunity (more about that in a moment) funneled through a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). The SGOs take the money, wrap it in a bow, and hand it over as vouchers to families.

Greene points out the lack of oversight and accountability or even any rules. 

There is no process or set of requirements, no vetting for qualifications or competence, for SGOs or the education vendors who eventually receive the taxpayer-funded vouchers. By the rules of the bill, pretty much anyone can play and collect voucher funds or the 10% share that SGOs get to keep. There are no education-related guardrails in this bill at all, and it doesn't even specify the size of the vouchers. It's almost as if it were mainly about something other than education. Ka-ching.

But kicking money into the federal voucher program gets you 100% tax credit. Give a dollar, take a dollar credit. And you can do this for up to 10% of your income, which is the sweetest tax shelter that the feds offer anywhere in the tax code.

You may want to contact your Congressperson and tell them you do not support HB 9642, the Betsy DeVos Tax Shelter Act, because this bill unfortunately has many friends in DC. 

 

I did listen in to Seattle Channel's interview with Senator Jamie Pedersen, Senator Rebecca Saldana and Representative Joe Fitzgibbon. The discussion was largely around other issues but Fitzgibbon did include education in as a topic priority and said if the top issues got addressed, he would consider that legislative session a success. Fingers crossed that SPS gets a big bump in funding.