Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget proposes an additional $10 billion for K-14 education, but he also wants public school districts to increase and improve services for low-income students, foster youth, and other at-risk children. While commendable, there is bill in the State Assembly that seeks to address the needs of some of these same students in a much different and more innovative way.
AB 943, the Education Investment Incentives Act authored by Assembly Member Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert), would increase educational opportunities for at-risk children by giving parents greater school choice and by improving the quality of education in low-income areas. Under the bill, corporations would be allowed to claim a tax credit for charitable contributions to education scholarship organizations (ESOs) that fund scholarships for school children. The scholarships would provide tuition or fee assistance for children with special needs and for foster youth to attend private schools that address their specific learning situations. These scholarships could also be used to cover transportation costs to attend a qualified public, charter or private school.
Arizona enacted a similar program in 2006. Dubbed “Lexie’s Law” after a seven-year-old girl with autism, the law gives corporations a tax credit if they donate to ESOs that give scholarships to special-needs children to attend private schools that best meet their particular circumstances. The law has been a great help to children and their parents. Lexie’s mother, for instance, has said that her daughter, who cannot speak, “has learned to string [sign-language] signs together to ask questions, and her listening comprehension is off the charts.” “As a result,” she says with pride, “she is a leader in her classroom because she so willingly responds to the instructions given by her teachers and aides.”
Lexie’s mom knows exactly why her daughter is now succeeding in school: “Thanks to the personalized instruction she gets through the school choice program, she has found her voice without using it.”
Nestande’s bill would also give corporations a tax credit if they made contributions to educational improvement organizations (EIOs) which support innovative programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning or in the arts. These programs must be directed at either public- or private-school students who come from areas with high concentrations of low-income families.
Among the innovative programs the bill cites are those that use the Internet and distance-learning technologies to deliver learning. There are a growing number of successful interactive educational software programs, especially in math, that are raising the achievement of students. The National Association of Independent Schools, a private-school organization, has found that private school students in online courses report improved learning outcomes.
For example, St. Therese Catholic Academy, which serves mostly low-income children in Seattle, adopted digital technology to support teachers in their classrooms. Educational software programs that adapt to the learning level of each student provide truly individualized instruction, which allows teachers to focus on students who need assistance. Students at the school are now outperforming national averages in student growth in math.
AB 943 encourages corporations to help raise the STEM achievement level of students, regardless of whether they attend a public or private school, since all students will one day become part of our increasingly high-tech economy. With California ranking near the bottom in national math and science test scores, the need for new ways to improve STEM learning has never been more critical.
The last week of January is National School Choice Week. AB 943 is scheduled for a legislative hearing on January 13th. If legislators put the interests of children above the special-interest power players in the Capitol and approve the bill, California’s most vulnerable students would have much to celebrate come the last week of January and beyond.
Lance T. Izumi is the Koret senior fellow and senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute.