Lawmakers in Augusta will be considering a proposal to establish “hope accounts” for Maine students who either are home-schooled or attend a private school.
These hope accounts would allow parents who do not send their children to public school to use a portion of funds that would otherwise have gone to their local school districts for alternative education-related expenses, such as home-schooling materials or private school tuition.
The Hope and Inclusion Scholarship Program — proposed by a group of Maine Republican lawmakers — is similar to other education savings account (ESA) programs that have already been implemented in seventeen states nationwide.
A YouGov/yes. every kid. foundation. poll published in December showed that ESAs are the second most popular form of school choice nationwide, with 63 percent support among Americans and 71 percent among K-12 parents.
For the purposes of this survey, ESAs were defined as programs that allow “families to use the state funding that would have gone to their child’s public school to instead access the education that best meets their child’s needs.”
This study also showed that 70 percent of Americans believe that ESAs should be available to all students regardless of their family’s income, as would be the case under the program now proposed in Maine.
More than 50 percent of all the demographic subgroups identified by the poll agreed with this sentiment, with Black and Hispanic Americans coming in the lowest at 60 percent and 57 percent support respectively.
LD 220 — An Act to Establish the Hope and Inclusion Scholarship Program in Order to Provide Funding for Students Attending Certain Private Schools and Students Receiving Home Instruction — was sponsored by Rep. Barbara A. Bagshaw (R-Windham).
This bill was cosponsored by Sen. Jim Libby (R-Cumberland), Rep. Richard H. Campbell (R-Orrington), Rep. Alicia Collins (R-Sidney), Rep. Kimberly M. Haggan (R-Hampden), Rep. Sheila A. Lyman (R-Livermore Falls), Rep. Tammy L. Schmersal-Burgess (R-Mexico), Rep. Gregory Lewis Swallow (R-Houlton), Sen. Dick Bradstreet (R-Kennebec), and Sen. Stacey Guerin (R-Penobscot).
Under this bill, parents of children who are home-schooled or attending private school would be eligible to access 90 percent of the state and local funding that would otherwise go toward their local public school district.
These funds would be placed in a hope account to be used for a number of qualified expenses as specified in the legislation.
Among the expenses that could be made using these hope accounts are private school tuition, uniforms, tutoring services, home schooling materials, and standardized testing fees.
Parents may also purchase “basic educational supplies,” such as papers, writing implements, calculators, laptops, microscopes, telescopes, and printers. Devices primarily used for entertainment or other non-educational purchases, such as video game consoles and cell phones, may not be purchased using money from these accounts.
Funds could also go toward enrollment in a program that “lead[s] to an industry-recognized credential that satisfies a workforce need,” as well as be used for enrollment in dual credit or college-level courses.
Spending from these accounts would be monitored and reviewed by members of the board governing the program.
If it is ultimately determined that a student’s parents misused the funds, the hope account would be closed, and the remaining balance would be transferred to the state’s General Fund.
Up to 3 percent of the state subsidy that would otherwise have gone to the local school administrative unit may be used by the state for the administrative costs associated with running this program.
Click Here to Read the Full Text of LD 220
A similar bill was introduced by lawmakers in the 131st Legislature that would have created an Empowerment Scholarship Account program in Maine.
The legislation was ultimately defeated, however, in June of 2023 by a party-line votes in both the House and the Senate, with all Republicans supporting the bill and all Democrats opposing it.
President of the Maine Education Association Grace Leavitt testified in opposition to the bill at the time, arguing that the program would take resources from public schools and increase “inequity” in the state’s education system.
“Voucher programs may help more affluent families provide a private school education using public dollars,” she said. “But for every other stakeholder and constituency, the overall result of voucher programs has meant more inequity, more resource challenges for public schools, and more questions regarding the provision of special education services to students, among other negative outcomes.”
[RELATED: School Choice Bill Establishing Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Defeated in Legislature]
Sen. Jim Libby (R-Cumberland), the bill’s sponsor, had argued that the program would help inject some much-needed competition into Maine’s education system.
“The idea behind this bill is that we cannot improve Maine schools until we subject them to competition. Providing parents with school choice will quickly hone schools and make them far more customer friendly,” he said.
Members of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee will now be tasked with holding a public hearing on the recently introduced LD 220 and further considering the proposed legislation.
And the moral of the story is :
WE HAVE TOO MANY DEMOCRATS !
It’s time for a change !
The democrats being owned by the unions will never go for it, way to many campaign donations. Besides they could care less about a quality education, or your kids for that matter.
The article says “Republican backed” that means the dumbocrats will never pass it
Students are trapped in government schools being indoctrinated by loser “educators”, go into any public school now and you can’t tell who is the teacher or who is the student, ask any high school kid who was the the 16th President, you won’t get a response! C’mon man
This sounds like a great 1st step,…..
2nd step should be abolish the teachers unions,…..
How is Maine going to fare in the coming world of AI?
I suspect 95%+ of the population of Maine is going to get crushed by AI, while much of the rest of America and much of the world will likely benefit greatly.
What kind of effect will this have on the state of Maine and it’s economy?
I’ll be surprised if the Mills regime of pot growers have any idea what AI is! And then there’s the legislators – yuck!! We’re in trouble.