1. 10/19/2015 News Release: New report recommends education savings accounts to personalize learning for Kentucky students | Bluegrass Institute | October 12, 2015
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News Release: New report recommends education savings
accounts to personalize learning for Kentucky students
OCTOBER 12, 2015 BY JIM WATERS LEAVE A COMMENT
For Immediate Release: Monday, Oct. 12
Contact: Jim Waters 2703204376
(LEXINGTON, Ky.) – A new report released today by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions,
Kentucky’s first and only freemarket think tank, reveals how education savings accounts (ESAs) are empowering
parents to customize their children’s education to unprecedented levels.
The concept behind ESAs is simple. Parents who don’t prefer a public school for their child simply withdraw him
or her, and the state deposits at least 90 percent of what it would have spent into that child’s ESA instead. Parents
receive a type of dedicateduse debit card to pay for authorized expenses, including private school tuition,
homeschool curricula, online courses, testing fees, tutoring and special education therapies. Any leftover funds
remain in the child’s ESA for future education expenses, including college.
“ESAs are the latest advance in parental choice – fostering an unprecedented level of personalized learning for
students customized by those who know and love them best: their parents,” Bluegrass Institute president Jim
Waters said. “Kentuckians, who historically have greatly valued their independence, want this kind of freedom to
tailor their children’s learning.”
The freedom to choose not simply where but how their children are educated has resulted in a 100 percent
satisfaction rating among participating Arizona ESA parents. Not only are parents more satisfied having greater
options personalized by them, students are thriving academically and socially. ESAs are also fiscally accountable.
Funds are disbursed quarterly, but only after parents submit expense reports with receipts for verification. Regular
audits also help prevent misspending. If parents misuse funds they forfeit their child’s ESA and must repay
misused funds or face legal prosecution.
“ESAs are popular, easy to use, fiscally responsible and constitutional,” study author Vicki Alger, Ph.D., said. “A
schooling system that rations education based on where children’s parents can afford to live is a relic of a bygone
era. As it stands now, Kentucky parents have more freedom to decide which breakfast cereal is best for their
children than which education is best.”
Encouraging more options – not more of the same – is the way to improve education for all Kentucky students.
“By putting parents in charge of their children’s education funding, children in a growing number of other states
have customized learning options regardless of where their families can afford to live,” Waters said. “There is no
good reason Kentucky students and parents should be denied these kinds of opportunities for personalized
learning.”
For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com or 270
3204376.
Related posts:
1. Bluegrass Institute Policy Brief: Personalizing Learning in Kentucky through Education Savings Accounts
2. News Release: Report: New KPREP testing shows Louisville’s black students still falling through gaps
3. News release: Bluegrass Institute releases online report addressing Kentucky Education’s shaky ‘college and
career readiness’ statistics
4. News Release: Institute provides trend data missing in state’s new ‘Unbridled Learning’ accountability system
5. Kentucky Board of Education stands up for teaching reading to learning disabled students
FILED UNDER: EDUCATION, UNCATEGORIZED TAGGED WITH: EDUCATION SAVINGS ACCOUNTS, MILTON FRIEDMAN,
SCHOOL CHOICE, VICKI ALGER
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