High price tag for education savings accounts leads to proposal overhaul

A broad survey of K-12 schools and how they use the public resources at their disposal would be undertaken before Louisiana implements a program that would allow families to use state money for private education, including tuition and tutoring, according to legislation advanced Thursday.

The Senate Committee on Finance voted 4-3 in favor of Senate Bill 313 from Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge. It calls for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to use those survey findings to inform its creation of an education savings accounts (ESA) program. 

The time needed for the survey puts off, for at least one year, a decision from lawmakers on how much money they want to spend on ESAs, which have become a popular but expensive public education measure in Republican-led states. Indications are that the Legislature is very wary of spending big on a program with no defined ceiling.  

In its original version, Edmonds’ bill would have made ESAs available universally to all families, regardless of income, by the 2028-29 school year provided the Legislature funded the program. A legislative staff estimate placed the cost of the program at that point at $260 million annually. The nonpartisan Public Affairs Resource Council of Louisiana puts that number closer to $520 million.

These nine-figure dollar amounts led to resistance from lawmakers, who are bracing for a projected state revenue decrease of $558 million a year once a 0.45% portion of the state sales tax expires on June 30, 2025. 

Seeing unfavorable writing on the wall, Edmonds inserted the survey into his proposal to come up with a more precise cost figure for ESAs. The expense for BESE and the Louisiana Department of Education to conduct the study is unknown, but $1.8 million would be needed for the state school board to develop the ESA program, according to the bill’s updated fiscal note. 

Edmonds’ proposal also calls for the state’s existing school voucher program to lapse after the 2024-25 school year. It pays for about 5,600 K-12 students from low-income families at poor performing public schools to attend private schools. ESAs would first be available to only these voucher recipients starting with the 2025-26 academic year. They could use the money to stay at their current schools or enroll at another nonpublic campus.

The following year, the program would be open to kindergarten and existing public school students from families with income at or below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines, which was $31,200 for a family of four as of March 1. 

The updated Edmonds bill does not include a date to make all students eligible for ESAs. 

Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, proposed an amendment to Edmonds’ proposal that included what she called “accountability measures” for the ESA program. It would require students who use the money at private schools to take the same end-of-course tests administered to their counterparts at public schools. Schools that accept ESA proceeds would then be given letter grades based on the students’ performance on state tests.

Edmonds opposed the amendment, saying the updates to his bill allowed BESE to take steps toward accountability when its members build the framework for ESAs. Jackson-Andrews insisted she had been proactive about wanting the performance stipulations in the proposal, as opposed to waiting until the last minute.  

“I didn’t play ‘hide the ball’ with this amendment,” she said.

Edmonds promised to consider such changes before his bill was advanced to the full Senate.

The House has approved a similar ESA proposal, House Bill 745, from Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, that doesn’t include the survey in Edmonds’ version. It awaits a hearing in the Senate Education Committee.